This is the first cultural exploration of playwriting, directing, acting, and theater architecture in fin-de-siegrave;cle Munich. Peter Jelavich examines the commercial, political, and cultural tensions that fostered modernism's artistic revolt against the classical and realistic modes of nineteenth-century drama.

Ranging from the earliest drama to the theater of the 1980's this encyclopedia includes coverage of national drama and theater around the world, theater companies, and musical comedy. Arrangement of the 1,300 entries is alphabetically by name or subject with nearly 950 of these devoted to individual playwrights and their works.

First published in 1981, this book represents the first work in English to give a comprehensive account of the revolutionary developments in German theatre from the decline of Naturalism through the Expressionist upheaval to the political theatre of Piscator and Brecht. Early productions of Kaiser’s From Morning till Midnight and Toller’s Transfiguration are presented as examples of Expressionism. A thorough analysis of Piscator’s Hoppla, Such is Life! And Brecht’s Man show the similarities and differences in political theatre. In addition, elements of stage-craft are examined — illustrated with tabulated information, an extensive chronology, and photographs and designs of productions.

The German-language theater is one of the most vibrant and generously endowed of any in the world. It boasts long and honored traditions that include world-renowned plays, playwrights, actors, directors, and designers, and several German theater artists have had an enormous impact on theater practice around the globe. Students continue to study German plays in dozens of languages, and every year scores of German plays are produced in a wide variety of non-German venues. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of German Theater covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 cross-referenced entries on directors, designers, producers, and movements such as Regietheater, “post-dramatic” approaches to theater production, the freie Szene of independent, non-subsidized groups, the role of increasingly massive government subsidies, and cities whose reputations as centers of innovation and excellence that have made the German-language theater one of the most vibrant anywhere on earth. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about German Theater.

Thomas Mann's Felix Krull, written between 1910-13 and continued (though never completed) in 1951-54, uses contemporary accounts of these figures as a starting-point from which to explore the aesthetics of society. The early Krull marks an important stage in Mann's development in a number of respects.In writing it, Mann acquired a more flexible conception of identity and a new understanding of the relation between artist and public. Krull also signals a deeper engagement with Goethe and a shift in Mann's work towards a more open treatment of sexuality. The novel presents art as being central to the development of the individual and to social interaction. While Krull is nominally a confidence man, he is more of a performance artist, a purveyor of beauty who relies upon the complicity of his audience. The later Krull takes up where Mann left off and continues the justification of art as an essential human activity. This study draws upon unpublished material in order to provide a comprehensive reading of Felix Krull. It examines the novel within the context of Mann's work as a whole, and, in doing so, it seeks to demonstrate the remarkable continuity of Mann's creative achievement.