Literature of the Sturm und Drang by David Hill (review)

Abstract

MLR, 101.1, 2006 277 Butler's terminology, it appears to be men, rather than women, who are the 'bodies that matter' in these texts. They were largely intended fora male readership, and they set out, through negative and positive examples, how men ought to behave, and how men should make women behave. Female deviancy arises to disrupt the social order as a result of male failure or folly. It is as though the women are feared, but also in? fantilized: reduced to the perpetual state of a child, who, without careful supervision, is always on the verge of causing chaos. Selwyn College, Cambridge Charlotte Woodford Literature of the Sturm und Drang. Ed. by David Hill. (Camden House History of German Literature, 6) Rochester, NY: Camden House. 2003. xii + 377 pp. $85; ?60. ISBN 1-57113-174-4. This lively and informative collection of essays is not an introductory volume provid? ing a series of exemplary readings of key texts, as one might easily imagine from its title. Rather the reader is presented with a variety of approaches to the interpretation of the Sturm und Drang that, taken together, reveal its internal contradictions and its complex relation to the most powerful literary,cultural, and intellectual trends ofthe eighteenth century. In an extended introduction David Hill sets the context for the following chapters by surveying the writers' work and introducing some dominant themes and central critical questions. Bruce Duncan writes on the passions as exemplified in Sturm und Drang works as a reflection of developments in later eighteenth-century psychology. Wulf Koepke steers the reader carefully through the complexitiesof Herder's position in the Sturm und Drang, while Howard Gaskill writes cogently and engagingly about Ossian, Herder, and the idea of folk song. Francis Lamport provides a magisterial survey of Sturm und Drang drama, which is supplemented by Michael Patterson's consideration of the problematic area of the relation of that drama to contempo? rary theatre practice. David Hill discriminatingly investigates the limitations of the rhetoric of freedom, while Daniel Wilson focuses specifically on the vexed question of Goethe's early political imagination. Karin Wurst explores the discourse of love within changing expectations of marriage and the family.Susanne Kord looks at three women playwrights and suggests how their work offersa contemporary commentary on some of the attitudes and values of a highly male-dominated movement. Alan Leidner looks at Schiller's early plays as a distinctive postscript to a movement torn between a desire forautonomy and a desire forprogress and reform. Margaret Stoljar investigates with justifiable caution the applicability of the label 'Sturm und Drang' to the realm of music. Gerhard Sauder rounds offthe volume with an analysis of the changing perceptions of literary critics regarding the position of the Sturm und Drang within established narratives of the development of eighteenth-century literature. From this brief overview of content it is apparent that certain enduring themes (for example, self-expression and freedom) and critical questions (political implications and limitations, periodization, Sturm und Drang in relation to the Enlightenment) are illuminated from differentangles. Continuities with the Enlightenment are stressed and the wider European context of discussions about the future of drama, the na? ture of literary creativity, and the development of culture is acknowledged. Some discussions yield less than their chapter titles lead one to expect; the chapter on stage practice might, for example, have been more illuminating if the Sturm und Drang plays had been set within a more detailed account of contemporary theatre and with more precise reference to the repertoire, including opera, which is aptly mentioned in the chapter on music. The predominantly thematic approach means that the analysis 278 Reviews of certain key texts?Werther, forexample?will seem too brief to some readers. And it is a pity that the altogether justifiable emphasis on drama means that Goethe's Sturm und Drang lyrics are given only incidental coverage. This volume nevertheless contains some lively and engaging writing that incorporates the latest research and conveys some of the complexities of evaluating this highly influential corpus of liter? ary and critical work. University of Exeter Lesley Sharpe 'Das furchtbar-schoneGorgonenhaupt des Klassischen': Deutsche Antikenbilder {1755? 1875). By Lorella Bosco...