Abstract: At the beginning of the 19th century, the germinating “modern” period, there was a strong demand for reminiscence, which is also reflected in Geothe's late novel Wilheim Meisters Wanderjahre. This essay analyzes the novel's staging and reconstruction of tradition from a perspective of cultural memory theory. The studies indicate that either Saint Joseph the Second's performative mimic of the memory images of the Christianism, the “uncle's” reserving and archiving of the “historic remains”, or the re-encoding and utilizing of the cultural traditions in the “Educational Province”, is a literary utterance of cultural memory from the standing point of “presence”. These traditional connections, by using demonstration as their narrative mode, no longer hold their functions in constructing continuity and collective identity. They ceaselessly reflect the dislocations of the signified and the discontinuity of the traditions instead. As a novel in a transforming society, Wilheim Meisters Wanderjahre demonstrates the possibilities to reconstruct the cultural memory, but reveals the uneasiness and doubts about the tendency towards functionalization of the traditions.

Key words: Geothe, Wilheim Meisters Wanderjahre, cultural memory, staging, reconstruction, functionalization