Orientalist Poets and Intertextuality with the Qur'an: Johann Goethe as an Example

Abstract

Orientalist Poets and Qur’anic Intertextuality (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as a Case Study 

This article investigates the phenomenon of Orientalism and its contribution to intercultural dialogue, with particular emphasis on literary intertextuality as a dynamic process of textual interaction. It underscores the distinctive character of German Orientalism, noted for its scholarly objectivity and its orientation toward academic inquiry rather than colonial or ideological agendas .

The study takes the world-renowned German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as a case study of an orientalist writer whose intellectual and aesthetic engagement with Islam and the Qur’an, accessed through translations, left a profound imprint on his literary production. Goethe’s writings reveal a marked admiration for the principle of devotion to God and for the sublime stylistic qualities of the Qur’anic discourse.

Through analytical reading, the research demonstrates how this influence manifests in Goethe’s poetry in multiple forms of Qur’anic intertextuality, including direct citation, semantic dialogue, and conceptual assimilation.

The article concludes that Goethe represents a constructive model of engagement with Eastern cultural heritage, standing in opposition to patterns of negative Westernization adopted by certain Eastern intellectual trends.