The Paradox of the Obedient Actor

Abstract

This essay reconsiders the apparent paradox in Goethe’s reverence for the actor’s freedom in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and his demand for actors’ obedience in his ‘Regeln für Schauspieler’. Looking beyond the practical application of the individual ‘Regeln’ and instead reading them collectively as an extension of the Bildungsroman form, it identifies an analogous understanding of the actor as a subject in these works. If Goethe intended the Bildungsroman to educate bourgeois social subjects, in the ‘Regeln’ he sought to educate actors as aesthetic subjects. As much or more than working toward the ‘Verbürgerlichung’ of German theatre and actors, the ‘Regeln’ thus work toward the ‘Ästhetisierung’ of acting and of the actors themselves. Examining the paradox of the obedient actor, the essay shifts perspectives on Goethe’s ‘Regeln für Schauspieler’, and raises questions about how the Bildungsroman and ‘Theaterreform’ related to and impacted modern philosophies of subjecthood and freedom.