The Stage as 'Der Spielraum Gottes'

ISBN-13: 9783039102686 / Angielski / Miękka / 2006 / 254 str.

Opis

Until the second half of the nineteenth century, the concept of the divine plays an obvious and major role in German literature. Through an analysis of twentieth-century German theatre, this book investigates continuities and discontinuities of this tradition. More specifically, it examines the modern estrangement from religious traditions coupled with the modern alienation from language. This work, however, reveals that there is also a continued divine presence on the stage in modernity, despite the general historical turn toward secular atheism. It deals with divine presence in the plays of Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Wolfgang Borchert, Bertolt Brecht and Friedrich Durrenmatt and analyzes their struggles with the limitations of language. The book demonstrates how these playwrights turn their skepticism toward language into a theatre where the stage becomes a playground for the divine."

Recenzje

"La obra de Gabor es, sin lugar a dudas, un trabajo brillante, riguroso y muy sólido que contribuye con ideas novedosas y argumentos irrefutables a la definición de la Modernidad, de su literatura y del nuevo concepto de lo divino después de la 'muerte de Dios'." (Isabel García Adánez, Revista de Filología Alemana)

Spis treści

Contents: Das Moderne and the Modern Predicament - Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Jedermann : a Modern Mystery Play - Wolfgang Borchert's Draubetaen vor der Tür : Expressionism without a Vision. An open door to God - Epic Theater: Bertolt Brecht's Der gute Mensch von Sezuan : the Break with Illusions - Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Ein Engel kommt nach Babylon : "Verzweiflung" of Language and Faith in the Divine - Conclusion: Re-Presentations of the Divine.

O autorze

The Author: Olivia Gratiana Gabor received her Ph.D. in 2000 from the University of Michigan with specialization in Modern German Drama. She served one year as Language Program Director in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan. From 2002 to 2004 she was Visiting Assistant Professor of German at Western Michigan University and is currently Assistant Professor of German at Western Michigan University.