Counterparts and Werther: A Literary Approach to Subculture

Abstract

This work takes a literary-historical approach to subculture by analyzing the affective emotions of scene culture in the context of its historical moment. Additionally, it analyzes how the structure of feeling which dominates scene culture has been at work since Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, showing that this such structure of feeling is actually a result of major cultural shifts which make the search for authenticity a near impossible task. In the process of performing such a literary-historical approach to subculture, the pitfalls of the sociological approach to subculture will be brought to light as well.