DER KRIEG MIT HUMANEN ANTLITZ IN GOTTLIEB STEPHANIES DES JÜNGEREN SOLDATENSTÜCK "DIE KRIEGSGEFANGENEN"
THE COUNTENANCE OF WAR IN THE SOLDATESQUE DRAMA "DIE KRIEGSGEFANGENEN" BY GOTTLIEB STEPHANIE THE YOUNGER

Summary/Abstract: Gottlieb Stephanie the younger, author of many frequently performed playwrights, is also known as a productive author of soldier plays (Soldatenstücke). As a veteran and citizen of enlightened josephinist Austria, he worked continuously to improve the army’s image and to propagate the ideas of state enlightenment at the same time. His early play Die Kriegsgefangenen (prisoners of war), which can be read as a direct successor of and commentary on Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm. This play depicts bourgeois citizens and soldiers subjected to the condition of war. The analysis at hand tries to show that Stephanie confronts his audience with virtuous behavior in order to overcome unjustified negative stereotypes.

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