Heinrich Wilhelm Gerstenberg, Ugolino

Gerhart Hoffmeister (University of California, Santa Barbara)

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 1768

Places

Germany (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Tragedy

Resources

When Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg published his “tragedy in five acts” Ugolino (1768, first performances in Berlin and Königsberg 1769), he caused quite a stir because his innovative play appeared on the threshold between the decline of Enlightenment's neoclassicist aesthetics in literature and the dawn of the new poetics of Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) that flourished after the discovery of Shakespeare's northern genius. Gerstenberg was the first to draw practical conclusions from the previous discussion about Shakespeare (see G. E. Lessing, 17. Literaturbrief, 1759; Gerstenberg, Briefe über Merkwürdigkeiten der Literatur …

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1069 words

Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Ugolino". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 April 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21633, accessed 23 April 2024.]

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