Zur Funktion des Oxymorons und der Antithese in der Darstellung widersprüchlicher Gefühle. Am Beispiel der Briefromane von J. W. von Goethe und J. M. R. Lenz

Since the age of sensibility there has been a growing focus on inner subjective experience. The epistolary novels of Goethe (“Die Leiden des jungen Werther” [The Sorrows of Young Werther], 1774) and J. M. R. Lenz (“Der Waldbruder. Ein Pendant zu Werthers Leiden” [The Hermit. A Pendant to Werther’s Sorrows], 1776) provide an insight into the emotional world of a first-person narrator. His emotions, such as sadness or longing, are expressed through conventional rhetorical figures such as the oxymoron. However, the mixed feelings shown in the novels are rarely interpreted with reference to rhetorical figures.