Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This is an accessible 1996 study of the plays of Kleist (1777-1811), who ranks with Goethe and Schiller amongst nineteenth-century authors and who has been a major influence on contemporary German writers. Seán Allan examines Kleist's critique of the aspirations of both Enlightenment and Romantic metaphysics, notably his suggestion that the pursuit of 'transcendent' ideals of perfection constitutes a formidable obstacle to genuine progress in human affairs. In so doing, he offers resolutions of a number of long-running controversies in Kleist criticism, as well as summarizing the state of research on all the plays. The book includes discussion of two plays usually neglected by scholars - Das Käthchen von Heilbronn and Die Hermannsschlacht. All quotations are given in both German and English and full references are given to published English translations of Kleist's works as well as to the German originals.

Arts and Humanities --- Literature --- Kleist, Heinrich von, --- Criticism and interpretation. --- von Kleist, Heinrich --- Kleĭst, Genrikh, --- Kleist, Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von, --- Kleist, H. V. --- Ḳlaisṭ, Hainrikh fun, --- קלייסט, היינריך --- קלייסט, היינריך פון, --- קלייסט, הינריך פון,

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Authors, German --- Biography --- von Kleist, Heinrich --- Kleist, Heinrich von, --- Kleĭst, Genrikh, --- Kleist, Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von, --- Kleist, H. V. --- Ḳlaisṭ, Hainrikh fun, --- קלייסט, היינריך --- קלייסט, היינריך פון, --- קלייסט, הינריך פון, --- Chronology. --- Kleist, von, Heinrich

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Authors, German --- Biography --- von Kleist, Heinrich --- Kleist, Heinrich von, --- Kleĭst, Genrikh, --- Kleist, Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von, --- Kleist, H. V. --- Ḳlaisṭ, Hainrikh fun, --- קלייסט, היינריך --- קלייסט, היינריך פון, --- קלייסט, הינריך פון, --- Kleist, von, Heinrich

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Controversial during his lifetime as well as among today's scholars and critics, the German dramatist and writer of novellas Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) remains an enigma. Was he a Romantic or a Classic? A conservative or a liberal? What is his status in the literary canon? Because of their enigmatic qualities, Kleist's writings have attracted the attention of critics and theorists from well beyond the narrow confines of German literary studies: comparatists, historians, philosophers, legal scholars, and even musicologists and dance historians. And outside academia his writings are as popular as ever. This book scrutinizes for the first time a key element in Kleist's thought and poetic process: his obsession with the problem of passivity. Scholars have long been attracted to the dynamic, larger-than-life characters in Kleist's fiction and drama, overlooking the fact that Kleist's works often turn on moments of stasis, as these same protagonists are suddenly and sometimes brutally rendered passive. Through a careful, historically grounded, and original investigation incorporating extensive primary research in late-Enlightenment natural philosophy and eighteenth-century medical practices, the study sheds light on these nodal points in Kleist's work, contending that these structures of passivity are so pervasive and so systematic in his work that they can justifiably and profitably be viewed as constituting a kind of poetics. Steven R. Huff is associate professor in the Department of German at Oberlin College.

Passivity (Psychology) in literature. --- Kleist, Heinrich von, --- Kleĭst, Genrikh, --- Kleist, Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von, --- Kleist, H. V. --- Ḳlaisṭ, Hainrikh fun, --- קלייסט, היינריך --- קלייסט, היינריך פון, --- קלייסט, הינריך פון, --- Criticism and interpretation. --- von Kleist, Heinrich

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Letterkunde. --- Duits. --- Kleist, Heinrich von, --- Kleist,Heinrich von --- Criticism and interpretation. --- Ḳlaisṭ, Hainrikh fun, --- Kleist, Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von, --- Kleĭst, Genrikh, --- Kleist, H. V. --- Von Kleist, Heinrich, --- von Kleist, Heinrich --- קלייסט, היינריך --- קלייסט, היינריך פון, --- קלייסט, הינריך פון,