Book
Licensed
Unlicensed
Requires Authentication
The Historical Experience in German Drama
From Gryphius to Brecht
-
Alan Menhennet
Languages:
English, German
Published/Copyright:
2002
About this book
A survey of 17th- to 20th-century German dramatic works that not only treat historical events but yield a historical experience.
In what is still the standard survey of German historical drama, Das deutsche Geschichtsdrama (1952), Friedrich Sengle understands "historical drama" as that in which objective history is blended with an idea that isthe basis of its dramatic coherence and force. This idea inevitably becomes the engine of a dramatic action, inclining the theatergoer to become wholly engaged with dramatic characters in a dramatic present, rather than with "real" figures in a historical past. Such plays (for instance Schiller's Maria Stuart) may remain broadly "true to history," but the experience they afford is often not historical; that is, it may be emotionally and intellectually compelling, but it will not be historical in the sense of causing us, in our present, to become engaged with our relationship with past figures and events and their continued relevance for us. Alan Menhennet identifiesand analyzes examples of German drama that are historical in the stricter sense: not only in terms of the provenance of the material, but also in that, while remaining dramatic in nature, they do convey a historical experience. Bymeans of a critical survey extending from the seventeenth century to the twentieth, in the contexts of literary history, the philosophy of history, and German history from the Thirty Years' War to the Second World War, Menhennetprovides a complement to Sengle's still-valuable study. Major figures treated include Gryphius, Lessing, Schiller, Goethe, Grillparzer, Hebbel, Schnitzler, and Brecht. There is no competing work in English.
Alan Menhennet is Professor Emeritus of German at the University of Newcastle, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. He is author of Grimmelshausen the Storyteller (Camden House, 1997).
In what is still the standard survey of German historical drama, Das deutsche Geschichtsdrama (1952), Friedrich Sengle understands "historical drama" as that in which objective history is blended with an idea that isthe basis of its dramatic coherence and force. This idea inevitably becomes the engine of a dramatic action, inclining the theatergoer to become wholly engaged with dramatic characters in a dramatic present, rather than with "real" figures in a historical past. Such plays (for instance Schiller's Maria Stuart) may remain broadly "true to history," but the experience they afford is often not historical; that is, it may be emotionally and intellectually compelling, but it will not be historical in the sense of causing us, in our present, to become engaged with our relationship with past figures and events and their continued relevance for us. Alan Menhennet identifiesand analyzes examples of German drama that are historical in the stricter sense: not only in terms of the provenance of the material, but also in that, while remaining dramatic in nature, they do convey a historical experience. Bymeans of a critical survey extending from the seventeenth century to the twentieth, in the contexts of literary history, the philosophy of history, and German history from the Thirty Years' War to the Second World War, Menhennetprovides a complement to Sengle's still-valuable study. Major figures treated include Gryphius, Lessing, Schiller, Goethe, Grillparzer, Hebbel, Schnitzler, and Brecht. There is no competing work in English.
Alan Menhennet is Professor Emeritus of German at the University of Newcastle, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. He is author of Grimmelshausen the Storyteller (Camden House, 1997).
Topics
-
Download PDFPublicly Available
Frontmatter
i -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Contents
vii -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Preface
ix -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Acknowledgments
xi -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Introduction
1 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
1: Historical Drama of the German Baroque: Andreas Gryphius
13 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
2: The Age of Enlightenment: Aufklärung
33 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
3: Weimar Classicism: Friedrich Schiller
46 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
4: Herder, Goethe and the Romantic Tendency: Götz von Berlichingen
76 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
5: The Emergence of Austria: Franz Grillparzer
99 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
6: “Non-Austrian” Historical Drama: C. F. Hebbel
124 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
7: The Modern Age: Schnitzler and Brecht
149 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Works Cited
167 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Index
175
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 17, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781571136091
Original publisher:
Camden House
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781571136091
Keywords for this book
German Drama; Historical Events; Historical Experience; Historical Drama; Objective History; Dramatic Coherence; Political Formations; Cultural Identities; Unification; Globalization; Multiculturalism; Postmodernism; German Literature; German History; Jewish Germanists
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
