Shakespeare on the German Stage: Volume 2, The Twentieth Century

A history of Shakespeare performance in the German-speaking theatre of the twentieth century.

Wilhelm Hortmann (Author)

9780521121682, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 October 2009

520 pages
24.6 x 18.9 x 2.7 cm, 0.92 kg

Review of the hardback: 'There are three histories here: Shakespeare performance, the backdrop of German theatre in the twentieth century, and the larger encompassing story of German culture and politics. Each of them is told with great knowledge, astonishing clarity, and self-effacing wit. There is no book like this in English, and to my knowledge, none like it in German either.' Dennis Kennedy

Shakespeare has been a central figure in German literature and theatre. This book tells the story of Shakespeare in the German-speaking theatre against the background of German culture and politics in the twentieth century. It follows the earlier volume by Simon Williams on the reception of Shakespeare during the previous 300 years (Shakespeare on the German Stage, 1586–1914). Hortmann concentrates on the two most important and fruitful periods: the years of the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and the turbulent decades of the sixties and seventies, when the German theatre was revitalised by a stormy marriage of avant-garde art and revolutionary politics. A section by Maik Hamburger covers developments in the theatres of the German Democratic Republic. Hortmann focuses on the most representative and colourful directors and actors, describing and illustrating individual productions as examples of particular trends or movements.

1. Old traditions and new beginnings
2. Shakespeare theatre in the Weimar Republic (1919–1933)
3. Shakespeare in the Third Reich (1933–1945)
4. Shakespeare on the postwar stage - continuity or a fresh start?
5. Transvaluations: Shakespeare and the revolution of the West German stage (1964–1979)
6. Reconstruction, deconstruction, postmodernism: rediscovering Shakespeare in the eighties
7. Theatre under socialism: Shakespeare in East Germany
8. The end of an epoch - and some new faces.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS]