‘Eine bürgerliche Virginia’? Lessing's Emilia Galotti and the Development of the Bürgerliches Trauerspiel

Abstract

Lessing's preoccupation with a modern Virginia‐tragedy is governed by his theoretical notions of dramatic form and domestic tragedy. His imaginative realization of the play, however, is determined by an intuitive, probing awareness of the psychic and social exposure of the characters which is at odds with the basic assumptions of his dramatic theory and anticipates in important ways the development of a radical, socially critical drama.