Reading and Discussion From Weimar to Tokyo in 2D – Goethe in the Focus of Contemporary Authors

In January 2025, author Yui Suzuki was awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for his novel Goethe wa subete wo itta (Goethe Said Everything). For the Goethe-Institut Tokyo, Suzuki’s highly acclaimed novel offers a welcome opportunity to shed light on the literary traces of our namesake in the present day. Did Goethe say everything? Has everything been said about Goethe? As part of the event From Weimar to Tokyo in 2D, two young authors engage in a conversation that explores the figure of Goethe and his work from a contemporary literary perspective.
In Yui Suzuki´s novel, an unexpected encounter with a Goethe quote on a tea bag causes an identity crisis for a highly renowned Goethe scholar in the academic world. The unfamiliar quote on the tea bag unsettles the Goethe luminary and sets him on a bewildering journey through the world of literary quotations – one that ultimately leads to an encounter with Goethe himself in a dream.