Wilhelm Scherer (1841–1886)

6. Pre-Empirical and Empirical Poetics since 1820

“…175 Winkler develops his theory of 'etymic values of language' further with the help of Theodor Lipps' Aesthetik: according to Lipps and Winkler, each work is an 'emotional […] symbol' ("emotionelles […] Symbol") 176 which can be understood by the recipient. Today, some of his accounts can still be regarded as relevant: 181 for instance, the conception of literature as 'good' ("Ware") that refers to the historical school of German national economy (Wilhelm Roscher, Karl Knies), the evolutionary foundation of poetics and the 'protostructuralist' approach to genre that views genre as system. Winkler almost invented the term 'ideal reader' when explaining that the reader has to be recognized as part of the work when interpreting it -in the sense of the 'consorting of my persona with what is presented in the work of art' ("Zusammenstimmen meiner Persönlichkeit mit dem, was das Kunstwerk […] darbietet").…”