Johann Karl Simon Morgenstern
Johann Karl Simon Morgenstern (28 August [O.S. 17 August] 1770 – 15 September [O.S. 3 September] 1852)[1] was a German philologist in Livonia, the first director of the library of the Imperial University of Dorpat. He coined the term Bildungsroman.
Biography
Morgenstern was born in Magdeburg. He studied at the University of Halle under Johann August Eberhard in philosophy and Friedrich August Wolf in philology.
In 1802 he moved to Dorpat in Livonia, Russian Empire (now Tartu, Estonia) where he would spend the rest of his life. He held the chair for rhetoric, classical philology, aesthetics, and history of art and literature at the newly refounded University of Dorpat and was the first director of its library.
The character of his work changed in Dorpat. He discontinued his Plato studies and wrote about literature, art, philology, and philosophy. Morgenstern's former teacher Friedrich Wolf was disappointed by this development, and he remarked in 1808 that his student was growing more elegant, vain, and boring with the years.[2] It was in the course of this work that Morgenstern coined "Bildungsroman".
Even after his retirement in 1834 Morgenstern stayed in Dorpat. He bequeathed his 12,000-volume library, containing many manuscripts and a good part of the Kant estate, to the university. Four years after his death a medal was issued in his honor. Of this medal, made by Ferdinand Helfricht in Gotha, seven pieces were issued in silver and 200 in bronze.[3]
Works
- De Plationis Republica commentationes tres (1794)
- Auszüge aus den Tagebüchern und Papieren eines Reisenden (1811–1813)
- Über den Geist und Zusammenhang einer Reihe philosophischer Romane (1817)
- Über das Wesen des Bildungsromans (1820)
- Zur Geschichte des Bildungsromans (1824)
Cultural references
In William Goldman's novel The Princess Bride the fictional author S. Morgenstern is almost certainly a nod to Morgenstern's coining of the term Bildungsroman, as the novel is representative of the genre.
Gallery
-
Memorial of Morgenstern on Toome Hill in Tartu (Dorpat)
-
Medal Karl Morgenstern 1856.
References
- ^ "Karl Morgenstern (1770 – 1852)". EEVA. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
- ^ "Johann Karl Simon Morgenstern", Magdeburger Biographisches Lexikon
- ^ http://hdl.handle.net/10900/100742 S. Krmnicek und M. Gaidys, Gelehrtenbilder. Altertumswissenschaftler auf Medaillen des 19. Jahrhunderts. Begleitband zur online-Ausstellung im Digitalen Münzkabinett des Instituts für Klassische Archäologie der Universität Tübingen, in: S. Krmnicek (Hrsg.), Von Krösus bis zu König Wilhelm. Neue Serie Bd. 3 (Tübingen 2020), 78f.
External links
- Articles with short description
- Short description matches Wikidata
- Articles with German-language sources (de)
- Articles with FAST identifiers
- Articles with ISNI identifiers
- Articles with VIAF identifiers
- Articles with WorldCat Entities identifiers
- Articles with BNF identifiers
- Articles with BNFdata identifiers
- Articles with GND identifiers
- Articles with J9U identifiers
- Articles with KBR identifiers
- Articles with LCCN identifiers
- Articles with LNB identifiers
- Articles with NKC identifiers
- Articles with NLG identifiers
- Articles with NTA identifiers
- Articles with PLWABN identifiers
- Articles with VcBA identifiers
- Articles with CINII identifiers
- Articles with DTBIO identifiers
- Articles with SNAC-ID identifiers
- Articles with SUDOC identifiers
- 1770 births
- 1852 deaths
- Writers from Magdeburg
- German classical philologists
- Academic staff of the University of Tartu
- Estonian philologists
- Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire
- Philologists from the Russian Empire
- Emigrants from the Kingdom of Prussia
- Immigrants to the Russian Empire
- All stub articles
- German academic biography stubs