A companion to the works of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Bibliographic Information

A companion to the works of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

edited by Barbara Fischer and Thomas C. Fox

(Studies in German literature, linguistics, and culture / edited by James Hardin)

Camden House, 2005

  • : pbk

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Note

Bibliography: p. [363]-391

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

New essays providing a comprehensive view of the pathbreaking dramatist and theorist Lessing. One of the most independent thinkers in German intellectual history, the Enlightenment author Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) contributed in decisive and lasting fashion to literature, philosophy, theology, criticism, and drama theory. Lessing invented the burgerliches Trauerspiel (bourgeois tragedy) and wrote one of the first successful German tragedies as well as one of the finest German comedies. In his final dramatic masterpiece, Nathander Weise, he writes of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, of religious tolerance and intolerance and the clash of civilizations. Lessing's dramas are the oldest German theater pieces still regularly performed (both in Germanyand internationally), and both his plays and his drama theory have influenced such writers as Goethe, Schiller, Hebbel, Hauptmann, Ibsen, Strindberg, Schnitzler, and Brecht. Addressing an audience ranging from graduate students toseasoned scholars, this volume introduces Lessing's life and times and places him within the broader context of the European Enlightenment. It discusses his pathbreaking dramas, his equally revolutionary theoretical, critical, and aesthetic writings, his original fables, his innovative work in philosophy and theology, and his significant contributions to Jewish emancipation. The volume concludes by examining 20th-century reception of Lessing and his oeuvre. Contributors: Barbara Fischer, Thomas C. Fox, Steven D. Martinson, Klaus L. Berghahn, John Pizer, Beate Allert, H. B. Nisbet, Arno Schilson, Willi Goetschel, Peter Hoeyng, Karin A. Wurst, Ann Schmiesing, Reinhart Meyer, Hans-Joachim Kertscher, Hinrich C. Seeba, Dieter Fratzke, Helmut Berthold, Herbert Rowland. Barbara Fischer is Associate Professor of German and Thomas C. Fox is Professor of German, both at the University of Alabama.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Lessing's Life and Work - Barbara Fischer and Thomas C. Fox Lessing and the European Enlightenment - Steven D. Martinson Lessing the Critic - Klaus L. Berghahn Lessing and the Fable - John Pizer Lessing's Poetics as an Approach to Aesthetics - Beate Allert Lessing and Philosophy - H. B. Nisbet Lessing and Theology - Arno Schilson Lessing and the Jews - Willi Goetschel Lessing's Drama Theory - Peter Hoeyng Gender and Identity in Lessing's Dramatic Works - Karin A. Wurst Lessing and the Third Reich - Ann Schmiesing Lessing on the German-Speaking Stage in the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, 1945-1990 - Reinhart Meyer Lessing on the East German Stage and Screen - Thomas C. Fox and Heinz-Joachim Kertscher 200 Years of Lessing Reception - Hinrich C. Seeba The Lessing Museum in Kamenz - Dieter Fratzke The Lessing Academy in Wolfenbuttel - Helmut Berthold The Lessing Society - Herbert Rowland

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