Nathan der Weise und die Aufklärung der Postmoderne. Bildungsphilosophische Überlegungen
Nathan the Wise and the Enlightenment of Postmodernism. Some Pedagogical Considerations

Nathan the Wise and the Enlightenment of Postmodernism. Some Pedagogical Considerations

Summary/Abstract: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s Nathan the Wise is one of the classical German theater plays. Lessing discussed in his play the main problems of European Enlightenment like the relation between religion and knowledge or the necessity of tolerance and mutual understanding. In a postmodern culture, like the Western of the emerging 21th century the belief to find answers for this questions is under pressure or already disposed. Hyperrelativism and irony seem to be the dominant cultural attitudes. Armin Petras’ production of Nathan the Wise, presented at the 22nd International Theatre Festival Sibiu, set another focus. He situated the play in todays Jerusalem in a destroyed (hotel) lobby and populated it with characters that have similarities with those conceptualized by Lessing, but gone through the school of postmodern disillusion of Enlightenment’s dreams. The result is not the common ironical deconstruction of Enlightenment, but rather a productive dialogue between Enlightenment and Postmodernism, that is critical towards Enlightenments hopes as well as Postmodernisms cynicism. Using a pedagogical perspective on Petras’ production as example, the article tries to develop the argument, that the Enlightenment of Postmodernism is an enterprise, both necessary and possible.

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