Notes and Comments: The Lion That Squeaked?: Kleist's Hermannsschlacht on Stage

Reeve, William C.

doi:10.3138/sem.v23.3.265

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French Revolution, European Drama

Nielsen¹

2012

The Encyclopedia of Romantic Literature

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The French Revolution and the rule of Napoleon transformed Europe and its inhabitants, and theatre narrated the life and afterlife of these changes in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The revolutionary period includes the 1780s, the decade before the French monarchy fell, as well as 1789 to 1799, when rebellion and war dominated European politics; the Napoleonic era, 1799 to 1815; and the July Revolution of 1830, culminating in the crowning of Louis‐Philippe (1773–1850) as constitutional monarch. Theatre sometimes documented the memorable events of the Revolution. A controlling aristocracy, a corrupt clergy, and an oppressive environment that silenced free speech led to the end of the Old Order (ancien régime) . These issues lent themselves well to the stage when and if authorities allowed their expression.

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French Revolution, European Drama

Nielsen¹

2012

The Encyclopedia of Romantic Literature

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The Gender of Terror: War as (Im) Moral Institution in Kleist's Hermannsschlacht and Penthesilea

Krimmer

2008

The German Quarterly

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This article argues that the notion of warfare as a sublime endeavor does not originate in WWI literature but dates back to the eighteenth century. Alongside the debate on eternal peace, there existed a lively discourse, evidenced in texts by Wilhelm von Humboldt, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schlegel and others, that considered war a moral and culturally productive institution and lavished praise on its ennobling features. Secondly, the article suggests that Kleist's Hermannsschlacht and Penthesilea contain a critique of such recuperative war discourses. In Kleist's texts, the concept of terror emerges as the dark “Other” of the nexus of war and the sublime. Similarly, representations of savagery and inhuman cruelty are employed to deconstruct the notion of war as a rational, political act. Finally, the article claims that, in spite of these insights, Kleist's texts cannot be read as pacifist manifestos since the critique of war is undercut and confounded by the representation of gender.

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Notes and Comments: The Lion That Squeaked?: Kleist's Hermannsschlacht on Stage

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

French Revolution, European Drama

French Revolution, European Drama

The Gender of Terror: War as (Im) Moral Institution in Kleist's Hermannsschlacht and Penthesilea

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