Hamburg dramaturgy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Hamburg Dramaturgy is a work by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing on drama, written between 1767 and 1769 . It is not conceived as a uniform, systematic book, but as a series of theater reviews that Lessing wrote as dramaturge of the German National Theater in Hamburg , where he saw the need to break new ground in the performance of dramas.

In addition to explanations of current plays, which today are only of historical interest, the Hamburg Dramaturgy is therefore of great importance primarily due to its fundamental considerations on poetics , more precisely on the theory of drama . Until Lessing's time, literary theorists in the field of drama focused on observing the formal rules, especially the three units , namely the unity of action, place and time. This was characteristic of the baroque theater , which in the age of absolutism reflected its strict system of order. For the noble audience were tragedies for the "common people", however, listed comedies . As a copy of the tragedies, there were the main and state actions , in which not only royal drama heroes but also characters from the Commedia dell'arte appeared as funny characters .

In the Hamburg Dramaturgy, Lessing now sets as a condition, referring to Aristotle , that the first effect of the tragedy on the viewer must be pity . With this he turns against the previous drama poetics, which, also claiming Aristotle for himself, emphasizes not only pity but also fear as an essential effect. Lessing explains that Aristotle has been misunderstood, that Aristotle's “phobos”, who has been called “horror” by previous drama theorists, must in truth be interpreted as a compassionate fear that what happens on stage could also happen to you . Thus the concept of fear is inseparably connected with that of pity (s) ( eleos ).

Thus, these ideas become the core of what is called the enlightenment catharsis doctrine of drama: through empathy, a change should take place in the viewer that makes him more virtuous . Hence the necessity arises for him that the heroes of the dramas should be “of the same shot and grain” (75th piece) as the audience. This applies especially to the portrayal of monarchs: "If we have pity on kings, we have it with them as people, and not as kings" (14th piece) - a thoroughly revolutionary idea at the time.

Incidentally, Aristotle does not serve him as a role model because he is highly regarded, but because his theories are reasonable; an attitude that corresponds to the Age of Enlightenment . According to Lessing, the decisive factor is the uniformity, naturalness and probability of the action. He therefore rejected intricate episodes and novel-like twists and turns, as they were familiar to the baroque theater.

Lessing's reinterpretation of the Aristotelian theory of drama brought about a fruitful change in the conception of plays. In the place of opulent plays with noble figures and garish character roles, more and more bourgeois plays appeared, in which the viewer could find himself more easily; the bourgeois drama replaced the baroque drama.

For the discussion with his publisher Engelhard Benjamin Schwickert and the resulting changes to the second edition, see there .

expenditure

Web links