Topics in German Literature: Drama and the Representation of War

This seminar explores the depiction of war in European drama since antiquity, with particular emphasis on German-language texts. Our discussions focus on formal strategies for representing verbal agon and physical violence, the dramaturgy of groups and masses, the impact of changing genre concepts, and the entanglements of war and memory. Drawing on signal works of scholarship on drama and theater, we ask how conventions of dramatic form including the on-/offstage distinction, teichoscopy, and the messenger's report complicate the relationship between word and deed, aesthetics and politics.