Goethe’s West-Eastern Sweet and Sour Chicken Story

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a German author of, among many other things, the dramatic poem Faust.

Goethe is considered to be one of the fathers of comparative literature because of his interest in cross-pollination between Eastern and Western literary traditions. Although Goethe wouldn’t have been familiar with sweet-and-sour chicken, the original version of which was brought to the United States by Chinese railway workers in the early twentieth century, we chose to associate it with him because of the way this dish brings together elements of Asian and American cooking and cultures, allowing their different flavors to complement each other.

Goethe drew on many different linguistic and generic traditions in his own works, in addition to introducing many Asian and Indian authors into the Western canon.

— Submitted by Julie Allen, Comparative Arts and Letters