Cited by Luk�cs as a principal source of literary modernism, Walter Benjamin's study of the baroque stage-form called Trauerspiel (literally, "mourning play") is the most complete document of his prismatic literary and philosophical practice. Engaging with sixteenth- and seventeenth-century German playwrights as well as the plays of Shakespeare and Calder�n and the engravings of D�rer, Benjamin attempts to show how the historically charged forms of the Trauerspiel broke free of tragedy's mythological timelessness. From its philosophical prologue, which offers a rare account of Benjamin's early aesthetics, to its mind-wrenching meditation on allegory, The Origin of German Tragic Drama sparkles with early insights and the seeds of Benjamin's later thought.
| ISBN: | 9781844673483 |
| Publication date: | 1st May 2009 |
| Author: | Walter Benjamin |
| Publisher: | Verso |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 256 pages |
| Series: | Radical Thinkers |
| Genres: |
Literary theory Western philosophy from c 1800 Philosophy: aesthetics |