Trials and Tribunals in the Dramas of Heinrich Von Kleist
- ISBN-10
- 0820493279
- ISBN-13
- 9780820493275
- Category
- Literary Criticism / European / German
- Pages
- 153
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2007
- Publisher
- P. Lang
- Author
- Kim Fordham
Description
What makes the trial so appealing as dramatic form? Why do we watch? Is it simply the quest for truth and justice? Or is it much more than that? From the time of Sophocles, the court has fascinated audiences and dramatists alike. Kleist is no exception, as each of his dramas and many of his stories and anecdotes contain a trial of some sort from its most primitive form of hand-to-hand combat in the duel to more conventional legal proceedings in secular, military and ecclesiastical courts. At trial, we desire, whether consciously or unconsciously, to have our own system of beliefs and behaviours affirmed rather than to attempt to achieve justice: self interest prevails at the expense of truth and equity. The focus of this book is the tension between the restoration of dike, the balance of natural order, and the pursuit of truth and justice as impetus behind the trial. With recourse to the concept of legal instrumentalism, which underscores this preference for order over justice in both the law and literature, the author examines Kleist's dramas to determine the extent to which those individuals in positions of power are able to manipulate the proceedings, seeking not justice and truth, but rather the validation of their own particular version of order. The trial, a tool generally thought to be designed to discover truth and to mete out justice, is used instead, in the hands of the powerful, as an instrument of control and degradation.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
评歌德的《亲合力》
By （德）瓦尔特·本雅明著, 王炳钧, 刘晓译[64]迷娘是《威廉·迈斯特的学习时代》里的人物。这个少女身体孱弱,性格内向,出身于意大利.有过不幸的身世,和迈斯特在一起,才过了一段 幸福美好的时光,但不久病死。圣诞节时,迷娘扮作天使,身着白袍,头戴金冠,腰裹金带。事毕,叫她卸装,她不理会, ...
-
Munich: Hofbräuhaus & History : Beer, Culture, & Politics
By Jeffrey S. GaabThis book explores the connection between beer, culture, and politics in Munich to examine the crucial role the city has played in the development of modern Germany over the last thousand years.
-
On Myself and Other Princeton Lectures
By Thomas Mann, James N. BadeReflections of a Nonpolitical Man , translated , with an introduction , by Walter D. Morris , New York , Ungar 1983 . translated by H. T. Lowe - Porter , New York , Knopf A Sketch of My Life ( = SM 1960 . Stories of Three Decades ( STD ) ...
-
浪漫的灵知
By 胡继华著本书以灵知为视角，反向阐释德国浪漫主义。以浪漫主义为视野，发掘灵知主义遗产。通过浪漫主义来返观灵知传统，同时通过灵知之光来烛照浪漫主义，构成了此书的双向阐释学的理路。
-
Jews in Today's German Culture
By Sander L. GilmanThis is the first book to examine an emerging new German Jewish culture that has become visible since the fall of the Berlin Wall.The Shoah seemed to have erased the...
-
The Janus Face of the German Avant-garde: From Expressionism Toward Postmodernism
By Rainer RumoldAmong the avant-garde of the early twentieth century, the German movement remains one of the least understood in the current avant-garde and modernism debates. Rainer Rumold fills this gap with...
-
Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain
By Harold BloomA collection of critical essays on Mann's novel "The Magic Mountain" arranged in chronological order of publication.
-
Space and Time on the Magic Mountain: Studies in Nineteenth-and Early-twentieth-century European Literature
By Hugo WalterSpace and Time on the Magic Mountain explores the theme of the magic mountain in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century European literature, especially in selected works of William Wordsworth, Matthew Arnold, James...
-
Von der Unauffindbarkeit Deutschlands: Grundlageninformationen zur "Deutschen Frage/Deutschen Identität"
By Paul HeinemannWelchen bedeutungsstiftenden Einfluss übt das Wort «Deutschland» auf die Bewohner eines vereinten deutschen Staates aus? Wie trägt es zu ihrem Selbstverständnis als Mitglieder einer nationalstaatlichen Einheit bei? Eine entsprechende Antwort...
-
Selected Writings: 1938-1940
By Walter BenjaminOn Benjamin's concept of historical materialism , see in particular section I of his essay " Eduard Fuchs , Collector and Historian , " in Selected Writings , Volume 3 : 1935-1938 ( Cambridge , Mass .: Harvard University Press , 2002 ) ...