This is a new and accessible study of the plays of Kleist (1777-1811), an important and much-studied author whose work has been highly influential in contemporary German writing. Sean Allan examines Kleist's critique of the aspirations of both Enlightenment and Romantic metaphysics, and offers resolutions of a number of long-running controversies in Kleist criticism. The book contains summaries of the state of research on all the plays. All quotations are given in both German and English, and full references are given to published English translations of Kleist's works as well as to the...

The fascinating and controversial German writer of dramas and novellas Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) is one of the most interesting objects of analysis for scholars of German literature even today, nearly two centuries after his death by suicide. In recent years, disagreements among Kleist scholars have been so extreme that some have suggested that his work subverts the very process of interpretation. Sean Allan challenges this view and the related one of Kleist as a profound pessimist. He argues that the focus on Kleist's uninterpretability has obscured important elements of social...

This is a new and accessible study of the plays of Kleist (1777-1811), an important and much-studied author whose work has been highly influential in contemporary German writing. Sean Allan examines Kleist's critique of the aspirations of both Enlightenment and Romantic metaphysics, and offers resolutions of a number of long-running controversies in Kleist criticism. The book contains summaries of the state of research on all the plays. All quotations are given in both German and English, and full references are given to published English translations of Kleist's works as well as to the...