574 Reviews identity' (p. 76). Taberner pointedly contrasts Treichel's emphasis on forgettingwith what he sees as a romantic longing in contemporary German letters to fixin literature images of a usable past. On this count he compares Treichel with Botho Strauss, Martin Walser, and Arnold Stadler. The essays by David Basker and Rhys Williams coincide on a differentbut related point. Basker examines Treichel's tense relationship to place, finding it important to his theme ofthe collision between fantasy and reality. In Heimatkunde, forexample, the protagonist dreams of glory in exotic Portugal but finds only failure and humiliation there. Similarly, the self-deluding protagonist of Der irdischeAmor seeks erotic bliss with his Sardinian girlfriend in her homeland. He has an ideefixe of redemptive love that was long ago defined at the movies by Claudia Cardinale. In addition, he suffers from a need to triumph over an erotic humiliation or two. Alas, the Treichel protagonist is a fellow not likely ever to bask in the love of women, the bright light of professional glory,or the respect of his fellow man. Brandeis University Steve Dowden Modern German Political Drama: ig8o-200o. By Birgit Haas. Rochester, NY: Cam? den House. 2003. 256 pp. ?50; $75. ISBN 1-57113-285-6. As Birgit Haas tells us in her preface, writing this volume was her response to failing to find a single book-length study of recent German drama when preparing an undergraduate course on the subject. The result is a comprehensive survey of plays, organized thematically within two sections covering the 1980s and the 1990s. Haas includes drama on environmental themes, representations ofthe Holocaust, reactions to the Wende, and right-wing extremism, among other issues, in her nine chapters. While most of the chapters discuss three to five plays, the largest, on the Wende, engages with twelve to give a broad chronological appraisal, ending with Christoph Hein's allegorical review of the decade after reunification, In Acht und Bann. The chapters themselves introduce the theme in question by offering political, social, and cultural contexts. Haas then approaches a mainly representative selection of plays, placing them in the order in which they were written. Reference is often made to other relevant works by the playwright under discussion and a description and analysis are then offered to the reader. Haas does not merely dwell on issues of content but frames her discussions within the formal aesthetics of the plays. There is also brief reference to productions as a way of comparing what has been identified in the arguments with real performed examples. The level of analysis comfortably addresses the needs of the book's target audience. There are also extensive endnotes which demonstrate that the author has done her homework, although a bibliography would have provided a helpful complement to the index. Unlike some books on 'German' drama, this one adheres to its title and limits its choice of plays to those written by Germans, not Austrians or Swiss (although George Tabori's Mein Kampf is included, which is written in English). Yet even without Jelinek or Schwab, Widmer or Hiirlimann, Haas provides a diverse array of playwrights that includes doyens of contemporary drama, such as Hochhuth and Strauss, and those less well known outside Germany, whose works are introduced with verve and sensitivity. Haas's argument that the state of new writing is not in 'cri? sis' (p. 5) is clearly vindicated. The spread of plays will certainly offerstarting-points for lecturers interested in constructing courses on recent drama, as connections and interconnections are established at many junctures. While the texts are mainly well chosen, one does find a couple of peculiar decisions. That Heiner Muller does not feature in the GDR section is certainly unexpected, and Haas's opting for John von Duffel's Born in theRAF over and not in concert with Rinderwahnsinn in the chapter on terrorism is a little surprising. MLR, 100.2, 2005 575 One issue that is left open is the very nature of political drama. The implicit defi? nition that it is 'politically committed' (p. 2) is not broad enough to bear the range of examples on offer.Elsewhere, the suggestion that the personal is the political requires...