J. M. R. Lenz, Die Soldaten [The Soldiers]

Elystan Griffiths (University of Birmingham)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1776

Places

Latvia (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz's play Die Soldaten [The Soldiers, 1776] is probably the best known of the author's works and one of the most influential products of the German Sturm und Drang [Storm and Stress] movement. Lenz was a pioneer of a radically open form of drama in German, which broke with the classical poetics of Aristotle and challenged the primacy of French neo-Classicism on the German stage. In his dramatic practice, Lenz dispensed with established conventions to produce a vital, dynamic theatrical form, which abandons linear exposition in favour of a rapid unfolding of events, blurs customary distinctions between comedy and tragedy and eschews the studied bienséance [propriety] of French neo-…

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1993 words

Citation: Griffiths, Elystan. "Die Soldaten". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 December 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12296, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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