Despite the ongoing vivid and fruitful reception of Goethe's Elective Affinities its outstanding narrative technique and stylistical devices have not been studied as much as other issues of the 1809 novel. With my approach I want to draw the attention to a widely neglected aspect of this drama-novel that owes much of its compositional perfection and appeal to Goethe's unusual and innovative use of the historical present. The change of function of this classical device and its important role in establishing new techniques in depicting emotional conflicts and aporetic individual perception is the topic of this study.

Dr. Imelda Rohrbacher ist Referentin für Forschungsangelegenheiten an der Katholischen Privatuniversität Linz. Sie ist Lehrbeauftragte der Abteilung für Neuere deutsche Literatur der Universität Stuttgart und Mitglied der Forschungsgruppe »Textologie der Literatur und Wissenschaften« am Stuttgart Research Center for Text Studies (SRCTS).