The Drama of Revolt: A Critical Study of Georg Buchner

Description

Georg Buchner is one of the most important dramatists of the nineteenth century, both intrinsically and on account of his enormous influence on the drama of our own time. Professor Benn attempts a comprehensive study of the art and thought of this distinguished writer, emphasising throughout that attitude of revolt which is so characteristic of Buchner. After a brief introduction in which he pinpoints the positive nature of Buchner's revolt and establishes links between his thought and that of Hoelderlin and Camus, Professor Benn discusses in the first three theoretical chapters Buchner's revolutionary political principles, his sceptical and iconoclastic philosophical speculations and his fierce attacks on classical theories in art. He then examines each of Buchner's major works - Dantons Tod, Leonce und Lena, Lenz and Woyzeck - analysing the genesis and interpretation of the last in detail. A short concluding chapter summarises the results of the inquiry and assesses the value of the methods used.

'The determination and clearheadedness needed to escape from this uncritical state of mind, without abandoning the insights of deep affection, are the qualities of Maurice Benn's study of Buchner, The Drama of Revolt.' Times Literary Supplement 'Benn's success is due first of all, I believe, to a combination of sensitivity to language with a learning that is steeped in Buchner's texts, his intellectual and social milieu, and the past scholarship on him. Just as important, Benn is working within a critical tradition ... the British 'empirical and-common-sense' tradition.' Criticism