Modern German Drama: A Study In Form

Year Created 2001 Submitted by Amanda in August, 2010 View full citation

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Following the Second World War German drama established itself as a forum for political discussion, a means of commenting on and questioning society. Faced with the traumatic experience of devastation, division, and communal guilt, dramatists were forced not only to extend Brecht's experiments of the twenties and thirties, but to develop radical forms of expression and presentation. These are shown to have been seminal for modern theatre in general.

This wide-ranging study of all drama written in German (whether in the Federal or Democratic Republics, Austria or Switzerland) in the period 1945-1977 identifies the concerns and perceptions of dramatists working in a specific and unique social context and period, and analyses the major theatrical forms they developed or adapted to express their experience, to trace writers' literary antecedents, their 'tradition', and to explore the critical issues raised by each stylistic innovation. The discussion focuses around the main forms of theatre - epic, documentary, absurdist and linguistic drama and more traditional forms. It is of particular interest to teachers and students of drama and German, as well as to a wider theatre-going public.

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