Vorlesungen über Enzyklopädie (1803). (Kritische Ausgabe der Vorlesungen, 3) by August Wilhelm Schlegel, Frank Jolles, Edith Höltenschmidt

Abstract

MLR, 104.3, 2009 905 rather than using ittopreach amoral (contrary to themisleading expectation some times aroused by hisMannheim essay, best known under the title 'Die Schaub?hne als einemoralische Anstalt betrachtet'). Under theheadings 'Zuschauer, 'Schauspie ler', and 'Inszenierung' the study surveys changing theatrical tastes and conditions: the creation of court and 'national' theatres, the process of Literarisierung, the turn away from theHaupt- und Staatsaktion to sentimental drama of the private sphere, the consequent cultivation of a realistic style of acting reflective of psychological states, the rise in status and professionalization of the actor.Against thebackground of these changes Pikulik positions Schiller's distinctive combination of heroic tra gedy and private emotion. He expounds the playwright's views on the stage, from the early Stuttgart and Mannheim essays to his aesthetic writings of the 1790s, and sketches his involvement with theWeimar Court Theatre from 1799 up to his death.While acknowledging how far the eighteenth-century theatre was from modern Regiekunst, Pikulik examines the Weimar theatre experiment as an attempt to realize a vision of theatre as an ?sthetische Anstalt' that rejected the dominant realist style. This account of Schiller's ideas on theatre and of their place within his aesthetic theory is clear and fluent. If,however, the title raises expectations of learning how Schiller related to the actual theatreworld of his day, rather than to the stage as a concept, then the reader will be disappointed. Pikulik acknowledges the gulf be tween literaryand theatre history, but his own narrative is still strongly literary. In fact there ismuch essential research thatwould have given Pikulik's account greater theatrical context and conveyed to the reader something of the specific dynamics of the theatreworld in the later eighteenth century. Examples of sources published in the later nineteenth century would be the protocols of theMannheim theatre's Ausschuss, of which Schiller was for a year a member, and the repertoires of the Mannheim and Weimar theatres.More recently, J?rgKr?mers Deutschsprachiges Musiktheater im 18. Jahrhundert (T?bingen: Niemeyer, 1997) helps us understand how the rise of musical theatre affected the construction of repertoires and di minished the time available for serious drama, even at the Weimar Court Theatre. Pikulik does not, admittedly, claim that this is a research book, but his readers might have benefited from an appraisal that took greater account of the breadth of available published sources. University of Exeter Lesley Sharpe Vorlesungen ?ber Enzyklop?die (1803). By August Wilhelm Schlegel. Ed. by Frank Jolles and Edith H?ltenschmidt. (Kritische Ausgabe der Vorlesun gen, 3) Paderborn: Sch?ningh. 2006. xliii+58opp. ISBN 978-3-506-77853 6. This third volume of the critical edition of A. W. Schlegel's lectures is especially to be welcomed. For it has succeeded in encapsulating within its covers a sig nificant and hitherto unpublished text, plus an introduction and over 150 pages 9 6 Reviews of commentary. By contrast, the first volume in the series (1989) contains only text,while the second, planned in two parts (first 2007), has not yet delivered the critical apparatus. One cannot therefore stress too much the usefulness and general excellence of Frank Jolles's and especially Edith Holtenschmidt's editorial work. Both Schlegel brothers operated with thephilosophical notions of 'Ganzheit' and 'Vielfalt' and both wished to give these a practical, demonstrable form.Only August Wilhelm succeeded in doing this, first in Berlin in 1803 (this edition) and later in Bonn (Vorlesungen ?ber das akademische Studium, 1818). Schlegel's various lectures on literature and art,whether given in Jena,Berlin, Vienna, or Bonn, all however relate in some degree to the 'Enzyklop?die' project. Now we have the 'Urtext' itself. Schlegel delivered the lectures inMay 1803, conceiving them as an integral part of his wider Berlin cycle that encompassed classical and modern (Roman tic) literature, and aesthetics. Earlier lectures given in Jena and major articles in Athenaeum (1798-1800) and Europa (1803) also relate essentially to this corpus. The 'Enzyclop?die' lectures have as their first and primary function a systematic account of themain areas of human intellectual endeavour. They are marshalled and interconnected so as toproduce both the sum ofknowledge and theprogressive forces that lead to its...