‘Bibeldichtung’ und dichterische Darstellung. Kain in der Literatur um 1800: Klopstock, Gessner, Coleridge, Byron

Abstract

Biblical poetry is a still neglected genre in literary history. The current approaches are misleading both systematically and historically because they tend to split literary matter and biblical form, and they see biblical poetry as part of a broad secularization process. Four rewritings of Cain's biblical story, all written around 1800, show that literary approaches to the bible tended to produce new forms and innovative genres, such as an “undramatic” drama (Klopstock), a pastoral that implicitly criticises the pastoral worldview (Gessner), a prose poem that systematically blurs the border between poetry and prose (Coleridge), and a drama that combines the radial rebellion of Cain with the reinforcement of the biblical norms (Byron).