Overview

New essays providing a comprehensive view of the pathbreaking dramatist and theorist Lessing. One of the most independent thinkers in German intellectual history, the Enlightenment author Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) contributed in decisive and lasting fashion to literature, philosophy, theology, criticism, and drama theory. Lessing invented the burgerliches Trauerspiel (bourgeois tragedy) and wrote one of the first successful German tragedies as well as one of the finest German comedies. In his final dramatic masterpiece, Nathander Weise, he writes of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, of religious tolerance and intolerance and the clash of civilizations. Lessing's dramas are the oldest German theater pieces still regularly performed (both in Germanyand internationally), and both his plays and his drama theory have influenced such writers as Goethe, Schiller, Hebbel, Hauptmann, Ibsen, Strindberg, Schnitzler, and Brecht. Addressing an audience ranging from graduate students toseasoned scholars, this volume introduces Lessing's life and times and places him within the broader context of the European Enlightenment. It discusses his pathbreaking dramas, his equally revolutionary theoretical, critical, and aesthetic writings, his original fables, his innovative work in philosophy and theology, and his significant contributions to Jewish emancipation. The volume concludes by examining 20th-century reception of Lessing and his oeuvre. Contributors: Barbara Fischer, Thomas C. Fox, Steven D. Martinson, Klaus L. Berghahn, John Pizer, Beate Allert, H. B. Nisbet, Arno Schilson, Willi Goetschel, Peter Hoeyng, Karin A. Wurst, Ann Schmiesing, Reinhart Meyer, Hans-Joachim Kertscher, Hinrich C. Seeba, Dieter Fratzke, Helmut Berthold, Herbert Rowland. Barbara Fischer is Associate Professor of German and Thomas C. Fox is Professor of German, both at the University of Alabama.

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9781571134523

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Reviews

A very nice presentation, work by work. The bibliography is up to date, with index. A work that is useful and welcome. ETUDES GERMANIQUES

A very nice presentation, work by work. The bibliography is up to date, with index. A work that is useful and welcome. ETUDES GERMANIQUES (T)his volume is representative and thorough. Recommended. CHOICE (A) most useful introduction for graduate students and faculty to the life and works of one of Germany's classical writers of the eighteenth century. . . . (T)he editors have rendered a great service to Lessing scholarship. THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CURRENT BIBLIOGRAPHY

A very nice presentation, work by work. The bibliography is up to date, with index. A work that is useful and welcome. ETUDES GERMANIQUES [T]his volume is representative and thorough. Recommended. CHOICE [A] most useful introduction for graduate students and faculty to the life and works of one of Germany's classical writers of the eighteenth century. . . . [T]he editors have rendered a great service to Lessing scholarship. THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CURRENT BIBLIOGRAPHY

A very nice presentation, work by work. The bibliography is up to date, with index. A work that is useful and welcome. ETUDES GERMANIQUES (T)his volume is representative and thorough. Recommended. CHOICE (A) most useful introduction for graduate students and faculty to the life and works of one of Germany's classical writers of the eighteenth century. . . . (T)he editors have and works of one of Germany's classical writers of the eighteenth century. . . . (T)he editors have

Author Information

THOMAS C. FOX is Professor of German at the University of Alabama. He is the author of Stated Memory: East Germany and the Holocaust (Camden House, 1999) and co-editor of Companion to the Works of Lessing (Camden House, 2005). HERBERT ROWLAND is Emeritus Professor of German at Purdue University. KARIN A. WURST is Professor of German at Michigan State University. PETER HÖYNG is Professor of German at Emory University. STEVEN D. MARTINSON is Professor Emeritus of German at the University of Arizona. THOMAS C. FOX is Professor of German at the University of Alabama. He is the author of Stated Memory: East Germany and the Holocaust (Camden House, 1999) and co-editor of Companion to the Works of Lessing (Camden House, 2005).

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