Geschlechterpoetik

Abstract

Abstract ‚Geschlechterpoetik‘ as a methodological approach examines the mutual interferences between gender and genre in classicist drama around 1700. It outlines in which way the development of literary genres, especially tragedies, can be described in relation to historically variable and culture-specific gender performativity in dramatic texts. Obviously classicist drama of the early Enlightenment gradually transforms the virile ethics of the ‚Staats- and Heldentragödie‘ established by ancient poetics into a ‚zivile Tragödie‘. The ‚zivile Tragödie‘ is constituted by moral values that can be considered as genuinely human and universal. In the context of 18th-century moral philosophy, the rising influence of empiricism and the polarisation of gender roles morality is increasingly associated with ideals of womanhood. The gender-based transformation of early modern tragedy can be exemplified in selected texts of Johann Christoph Gottsched, Luise Gottsched and Johann Elias Schlegel which visualize the described transformation of ancient heroic tragedy into a so-called ‚zivile Tragödie‘ by using and gradually naturalizing female allegories for pitiful female protagonists who ideally incorporate genuine human ethics.