Goethe and the Challenge of Representing Metamorphosis

Gregory Rupik

While laying the foundations of his new science of morphology, Goethe highlighted the unique metamorphoses of organismal forms, observing that “we will discover that nothing in them is permanent, nothing is at rest or defined—everything is in a flux of continual motion.” In Goethe’s experience, the only way to gain an understanding of these dynamic beings’ formation is to accompany organisms through their transformations; to understand temporal beings, one must spend time with them. Patience, discipline, and tenderness–Goethe contended–are necessary habits one must cultivate in order to combat a “hastiness” that often leads us to equate organisms with their reproductive adult forms, or with their place or function within a divine, natural, or organizational system. Goethe also lamented how rare and difficult it is for language or art to capture or “write” the motion of life. In this paper, I will explore how Goethe’s works about organisms, and his works about studying organisms might be considered early experimental works of “cinematography.” From his methodological treatises to his scientific essays to his poetry, Goethe creatively assembled new expressive devices to depict and describe the fundamental dynamics of organisms–that is, he laboured to write (gráphein) their motion (kínēma). In the course of the paper, I will demonstrate how expressing organisms’ fundamental temporality remains a challenge today, and will also demonstrate some surprising links between Goethe’s cinematography and the birth of modern cinema.