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German Context

The document discusses the rise of German nationalism and romanticism in the 18th-19th centuries and their influence on the development of a German national theatre. Nationalism grew throughout Europe after the Napoleonic Wars and led to the standardization of national languages and histories. Romanticism emphasized the individual and organic creativity, influencing theatre to focus on the genius of individual playwrights and star actors. Figures like Lessing and Goethe helped develop a uniquely German form of drama and push for a national theatre to unite the country culturally.

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Stjanu Debono
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71 views3 pages

German Context

The document discusses the rise of German nationalism and romanticism in the 18th-19th centuries and their influence on the development of a German national theatre. Nationalism grew throughout Europe after the Napoleonic Wars and led to the standardization of national languages and histories. Romanticism emphasized the individual and organic creativity, influencing theatre to focus on the genius of individual playwrights and star actors. Figures like Lessing and Goethe helped develop a uniquely German form of drama and push for a national theatre to unite the country culturally.

Uploaded by

Stjanu Debono
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Thursday, 14 April 2016

The German Context: 18th and 19th Century

In search of a National Theatre

- Introduction: Nationalism and Romanticism

Nationalism was a movement throughout Europe


- Not only in Germany
- A reaction to Napoleonic Wars
- Creation of frontiers (boundaries)
- Justification

Nationalism and the development of text


- Melodrama
- Printing press/culture
Standardisation of national languages
History of nations written and published
National theatres diffuse image of united country (i.e. Romanticism)

1861/1871

Next step: Imperialism


- Extending the boundary

- Positive implications of romanticism to theatre


Emile Zola: 'broke the hold of neoclassicism'
- Paved the way for Naturalism and Realism

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Thursday, 14 April 2016
- Romanticism in theatre gives rise to an emphasis on the individual
August Wilhelm (later: von) Schlegel (1767-1845)
- According to him, Shakespearean dramatic form was organic - it germinated and
flowered from within, like a plant, unlike neoclassical plays, in which unity was
achieved externally and mechanically

- Organicity of poet emerges from within = Organicity of actor emerges from within
This gives rise to the 'star' actor

Organic
Playwright
Creative

Star actor

Genius individual

- Romanticism and Nationalism


Romantics gave momentum to the national movement
- Enlightenment = universal laws of nature
- Romantics = interested in particulars, particular nation

Napoleon's armies had conquered in the name of universal Enlightenment


principles
- Volksgeist - the spirit of a nation

- Germany pre-1871
Strolling companies from England and Italy; brought the rise of the Naar (the
German fool through the influence of the fool and Arlecchinkn)

Court theatre from France and Italy


Commoners' theatre (dialects)
Jesuits theatre / Lutheran school
No German theatres/plays/buildings/actors

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Thursday, 14 April 2016
- Johan Gottsched (a dramaturg) to Caroline Neuber (an actress)
Translated plays in German

- Gotthold Lessing
1729-1781
First significant writer
Predecessors
Lessing on tragedy (goes to source to find that French misinterpreted it)
Identification between role/spectator
Dramatic genres (he says they are flexible: mixing of comic and tragic elements is
possible; mixing of common and noble people is possible)

Lessing on the actor


Sturm und Drang

- Sturm und Drang


A movement in the arts that emphasises the creativity of the individual
Creativity cannot be achieved in a rule bound system of thought
Creativity through intuitive exercise of imagination
Genius
Shakespeare is a model
- 'a mortal gifted with divine power'
- 'quasi-divine creator of infinitely suggestive patterns'
Starting point: 'popular taste of our fatherland'
Ancient Greece = to see ONE ACTION
Modern Germany = to see one CHARACTER/HERO
Episodic plots
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Gotz von Berlichengen (1773): a 15th century folk hero

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