
Tragedy in Paradise
Family and Gender Politics in German Bourgeois Tragedy 1750-1850
Gail K. Hart(Author)
Camden House Inc (Publisher)
Published on 16. May 1996
Book
Hardback
150 pages
978-1-57113-037-2 (ISBN)
Description
Examination of the German genre of `bourgeois tragedy', bringing out its underlying characteristics.
Buergerliches Trauerspiel' or bourgeois tragedy is the most popularly acclaimed and critically documented form of German drama. From the mid-eighteenth century, some of Germany's greatest dramatists turned away from classical subjects to focus instead on the intricate internecine struggles of the middle-class family. This book views bourgeois tragedy and related forms of 'family' drama as depicting the enactment of a threat to stability and domestic order,organised so that the threat is defeated and the anxieties of the predominantly middle-class audience relieved; the author argues that these threats are represented as emanating from female figures who oppose and challenge the authority and order of a father or husband. Texts examined include Klinger's Sturm und Drang, Goethe's Stella and Die natuerliche Tochter, Kleist's 'UEber das Marionettentheater' and Hebbel's Maria Magdalene.
Buergerliches Trauerspiel' or bourgeois tragedy is the most popularly acclaimed and critically documented form of German drama. From the mid-eighteenth century, some of Germany's greatest dramatists turned away from classical subjects to focus instead on the intricate internecine struggles of the middle-class family. This book views bourgeois tragedy and related forms of 'family' drama as depicting the enactment of a threat to stability and domestic order,organised so that the threat is defeated and the anxieties of the predominantly middle-class audience relieved; the author argues that these threats are represented as emanating from female figures who oppose and challenge the authority and order of a father or husband. Texts examined include Klinger's Sturm und Drang, Goethe's Stella and Die natuerliche Tochter, Kleist's 'UEber das Marionettentheater' and Hebbel's Maria Magdalene.
Reviews / Votes
Hart's analysis is sophisticated, precise, and focused; her readings nuanced and sound.... This is an exceptionally informative and eminently readable book.' LESSING YEARBOOK 'This stimulating study concludes with an examination of the connotations of gender in Kleist's aesthetics and in the three plays with which Hebbel showed that the tradition of the buergerliches Trauerspiel had come to its end. * YEAR'S WORK IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDIES *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Columbia, MD
United States
Publishing group
Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 579 mm
Width: 386 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-57113-037-2 (9781571130372)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
GAIL K. HART is Professor Emerita of German at the University of California, Irvine.