Landmarks in German Comedy

Public demand for comedy has always been high in the German-speaking countries, but the number of comic dramas that have survived is relatively small. Those which are still read or regularly performed all have a serious purpose, and this collection of fourteen essays on the most distinguished of them shows how laughter can be exploited to treat personal, moral, and social problems in a way that would not be possible in tragedy. The texts range from the seventeenth to the late twentieth century, and no fewer than half of them are by Austrian writers. The contributors show how these plays are often subversive, regularly arousing an uncomfortable, self-challenging laughter, and how they treat such widely ranging subjects as language and communication, the complications of the sex drive, the inflexibility of the Prussian mind, and the behaviour of Austrian celebrities during the Third Reich. The essays are all written by specialists in the field and were originally delivered as lectures in the University of Cambridge.

The Editor: Peter Hutchinson is Reader in German in the University of Cambridge and Director of Studies in Modern Languages at Trinity Hall. He has published widely on German literature from the eighteenth century to the present day and has edited a number of texts and collections of essays.

Leseprobe

Contents: Peter Hutchinson: Introduction – Charlotte Woodford: Gryphius, – H. B. Nisbet: Lessing, – Michael Minden: Kleist, – Ian Roe: Grillparzer, – Andrew Webber: Büchner, – W. E. Yates: Nestroy, Roger Paulin: Hauptmann, – Martin Swales: Schnitzler, – Edward Timms: Kraus, – Robert Vilain: Hofmannsthal, – Mary Stewart: Zuckmayer, – Peter Hutchinson: Dürrenmatt, – J. J. Long: Bernhard, – Allyson Fiddler: Jelinek, .