In a span of six decades, Nobel Prize laureate Gerhart Hauptmann wrote forty-six dramas and sixteen works of prose and verse. Part of a German movement towards a “consistent realism”, influenced by the naturalism of Emile Zola and Henrik Ibsen, he emerged as a seminal and leading force in the development of naturalist drama both in Germany and abroad, above all during the first two decades of his writing for the theater between 1889 and 1911. This period begins with the sensational staging of his Vor Sonnenaufgang [Before Sunrise, 1889], the first German naturalist play, and ends with Die Ratten [The Rats, 1911]. Those two dramas embrace a further nineteen stage works, which – with only occasional …
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Citation: Whitinger, Raleigh. "Gerhart Hauptmann". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 November 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2028, accessed 21 November 2024.]
