Teaching Documents by Herbert Herzmann
Vortrag gehalten am XI Lateinamerikanischen Germanisten-Kongress (XI ALEG) in Sao Paulo am 29. September 2003, 2003
Johann Nestroys Posse Einen Jux will er sich machen (1842) ist geradezu ein Paradebeispiel für Üb... more Johann Nestroys Posse Einen Jux will er sich machen (1842) ist geradezu ein Paradebeispiel für Übersetzung im Sinne von kulturellem Transfer. Das Stück beruht auf der Farce A Day Well Spent von John Oxenford, und bildete die Vorlage zu Thornton Wilders The Merchant of Yonkers (1938) und The Matchmaker (1954), die wiederum Jerry Herman und Michael Stewart zu ihrem Musical Hello Dolly (1964) inspirierten. Auch Tom Stoppards On the Razzle (1981) ist eine Bearbeitung der Nestroyschen Posse.
In: The Play within the Play. The Performance of Meta-Theatre and Self-Reflection, hg. Von Gerhard Fischer und Bernhard Greiner. Amsterdam – New York: Rodopi 2007 (Internationale Forschungen zur llgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft, hg. von Alberto Martino, 2007
In Calderon de la Barca‘s El gran teatro del mundo, the autor (God) wishes to see a play performe... more In Calderon de la Barca‘s El gran teatro del mundo, the autor (God) wishes to see a play performed, and he orders the el mundo (the World) to arrange it. The author distributes the roles and then watches and judges the players. He is a Magister Ludi. The impact of the Baroque tradition, and especially Calderon’s paradigm that blurs the border between play and reality can be detected in many Austrian works for the stage. This article concentrates on the function of the Magister Ludi and the relationship between play and reality in Calderon’s El gran teatro del mundi (1633/36), Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte (1790), Arthur Schnitzler’s Der Grüne Kakadu (1898) and Felix Mitterer’s In der Löwengrube (1998).
Inspired by popular novels Don Quijote upheld the values of the dying world of chivalry. The valu... more Inspired by popular novels Don Quijote upheld the values of the dying world of chivalry. The values and myths of chivalry to which he continued to hold on prevented him from understanding the emerging new word and to redefine his class identity in the changed circumstances. National communities exist within the global village. Thus national communities and the global village need each other, they are interdependent and are part of a never ending work in progress. Myths play an important part in the construction of national identities. They are necessary, however, we must avoid holding on to them uncritically as did Don Quijote. The myth of the people (German: Volk) demonstrates this particularly well.
Papers by Herbert Herzmann
Das zeitgenossische deutschsprachige Volksstuck: Akten des internationalen Symposions, University College Dublin, 28. Februar-2. Marz 1991
The German Quarterly, 1994
Samtliche Werke
Modern Language Review, Jul 1, 1995
Tradition und Subversion: Das Volksstuck und das epische Theater
Modern Language Review, 2001
Herzmann, Herbert. Tradition and Subversion: Das Volksstuck and das epische Theater. Stauffenburg... more Herzmann, Herbert. Tradition and Subversion: Das Volksstuck and das epische Theater. Stauffenburg Colloquium 41. Tubingen: Stauffenburg, 1997. 214 pp. DM 48.00 paperback. The title of Herzmann's book points to the manifold intent and scope of his study. Herzmann seeks to situate the contemporary Austrian Yolksstuck within the tradition of the Altwiener Yolkskomodie, a tradition that has been perpetuated in large part through its alleged subversion by successive generations of Yolksstuck dramatists. At the same time, Herzmann attempts to place this intertextual history within the larger context of German-language theater in general and the development of epic theater in particular. As a result, the notions of tradition and subversion become increasingly multireferential in the course of Herzmann's book, as they refer not only to the intertextual dynamics that constitute the tradition of the volksstuck, but also to the ways in which this tradition functions to subvert the aesthetics of classical drama, on the one hand, and contribute to the subversive traditions of epic theater, on the other. The widespread revival of the volksstuck that began in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Austria and West Germany has given rise to a number of recent studies of the genre. These analyses tend to proceed chronologically, typically beginning with the dramas of Ferdinand Raimund and ending with those of Franz Xaver Kroetz. Herzmann, in contrast, forgoes a strictly chronological approach and organizes his study around a series of structural and thematic issues intended to illuminate the specif ics of the contemporary Yolksstuck in light of the various dramatic traditions that it perpetuates and undermines: So geht es um das Verhaltnis von "hock" and "nieder," von Unterhaltung and Bildung, um die Rolle von Sprache and Mythos, den Wandel der Schicksalsauffassung and den Einfluss theses Wandels auf die Entwicklung der Form des Dramas, die Frage der Freiheit and um das Phanomen der Entfremdung. (16) Herzmann's approach allows for a farreaching and dynamic conception of the Yolksstuck to emerge. Given the kinds of questions that he poses and the expanse of theater history that he considers, Herzmann is able to locate important points of contact between this evolving dramatic form and the theatrical practices of the authors Brecht and Schiller, and the period of the Baroque. Thus, he not only draws important parallels between the Yolksstucke of Nestroy and Felix Mitterer, for instance, but also between the works of these two playwrights and Brecht. In addition, he devotes considerable attention to discussing the ways in which Baroque dramaturgy prefigures important elements of twentieth-century epic theater as well as the ways in which Brecht's aesthetics overlap with and stand in contrast to those of Schiller. …
Volkstücksvernichtung oder mein Körper ist sinnlos. Anmerkungen zu den Fäkaliendramen von Werner Schwab
The Play within the Play, 2007
Rilke und der Wandel in der Sensibilität
Tradition und Subversion: Das Volksstuck und das epische Theater
The Modern Language Review, 2001
Samtliche Werke
The Modern Language Review, 1995
Johann Nestroy. Samtliche Werke. Historisch-kritische Ausgabe
The Modern Language Review, 1997
Tradition und Subversion: Das Volksstuck und das epische Theater
The German Quarterly, 1999
Das zeitgenossische deutschsprachige Volksstuck: Akten des internationalen Symposions, University College Dublin, 28. Februar-2. Marz 1991
The German Quarterly, 1994
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Although historic drama uses elements of reality it remains fiction. Literature 'lies', that is t... more Although historic drama uses elements of reality it remains fiction. Literature 'lies', that is to say it creates its own truth and reality. The Vienna Burgtheater as a historic institution and as a place of dramatic fiction is the subject matter of Jelinek's historic drama Burgtheater. Behind the highly articifial dramatis personae who speak an artificial language full of Nazi clichés one can easily recognize members of the Hörbiger family, a dynasty of Burgtheater actors. The argument that the Hörbigers have no reason to feel attacked because the dramatis personae are clearly works of fiction and thus different from the real Hörbigers is not convincing. Jelinek appears to be serious when she insinuates in the play that members of the family, especially Käthe / Paula Wessely, share the responsibilty for the crimes committed by the Nazis. Käthe in Burgtheater can hardly be distinguished from Paula Wessely as described in a telephone interview given by Jelinek. The artificiality and apparent fictionality of the play appears to be a cover which enables the author to say things for which she could otherwise be brought to court. Harald Weinrich has pointed out that since it is no longer content to tell 'lies' but insists in telling the real truth and the true reality literature is in danger of becoming a servant of real lies. By not limiting herself to contributing to the improvement of the nation * Der Autor ist Professor am University College Dublin.
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Teaching Documents by Herbert Herzmann
Papers by Herbert Herzmann