The Playwright and Historical Change: Brecht, Hauptmann, Kaiser, and Wedekind

Description: The Playwright and Historical Change Dramatic Strategies in Brecht, Hauptmann, Kaiser & Wedekind by Leroy R. Shaw The University of Wisconsin Press, 1970, 0299055000, Hardcover without Dust Jacket, Good condition, ex-library, usual markings, 183 pages. Preface THE ESSAYS IN THIS BOOK originated in a series of semi- public lectures held in the Spring of 1967 while I was Visiting Professor of German Literature at Trinity College, Dublin. I had been asked to address an audience that would consist of townsmen as well as gownsmen, and the invitation included a generous mandate to discuss "any aspect of modern drama" I might wish. To an American speaking before a group of Irishmen on a literature foreign to them both, the occasion was not without a certain piquancy, particularly since one part of the audience had come to get acquainted with a subject it presumably knew little about, while the other was there to learn something about critical procedures more characteristic of American than of European scholarship. The attempt to meet both these expectations largely accounts for the selection of plays and the point of view from which I chose to regard them; it may also explain the sporadic shifts in tone or approach within individual essays. The transfer of lecture into essay always brings a temptation to tinker with the original version in the fond hope of improvement. I confess that I could not resist this temptation and have succumbed to it unconscionably. Believing it better to be hung for a sheep than a lamb, I have added evidence, expanded or clarified the text at multiple points, and in general pursued my first thoughts wherever they might lead. The most radical organizational innovation was in expanding the three Dublin discussions into four in order to place the Hauptmann play on a firmer footing. One feature I hope to have preserved in print, if only here and there, is the tone of oral delivery, for the memory of my contact with the Irish audiences is a bright one, and I should like to think I have done my best to honor the rhetorical tradition that makes their public occasions, even at times a series of academic lectures, such a delightful linguistic exercise. The entire effort, in any case, bears witness to an extremely pleasant event and to many happy hours of teaching and learning among the Irish. I am especially grateful to the Professor of German at Trinity, Dr. L. H. C. Thomas, for his kindness in inviting me to give the Dublin lectures; to my former colleague at Trinity, Miss Ita O'Boyle, for reading portions of the manuscript and offering a number of useful suggestions; and in another, no less important way, to the Graduate Council of Dublin University and the Graduate School at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee for encouraging me to ready the lectures for publication and providing the wherewithal to make this possible. LRS Oak Park, Illinois January 1970 CONTENTS Preface 1 Introduction 2 The Strategy of Compassion Gerhart Hauptmann's Einsame Menschen 3 The Strategy of Reformulation Frank Wedekind's Fruhlingserwachen 4 The Strategy of Exchange Georg Kaiser's Von morgens bis mitternachts 5 The Strategy of Reassembly Bertolt Brecht's Mann ist Mann Bibliography Index

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