Cognition in Action: Goethe’s Märchen

Abstract

This essay explores the role of physical movement and sensation in Goethe’s Märchen, with particular emphasis on the figure of the snake. Movement is essential to the moral resolution of the tale, and the depiction of movement to the inspiration of the reader. Cognitive approaches are deployed to tease out the symbolic significance of the depiction of embodied life in the text, and, moreover, to give a more detailed understanding of the effects of the piece on the reader. The article also traces in brief the lineage of modern cognitive approaches, with a particular focus on eighteenth-century aesthetics.