Shakespeare has been a central figure in German literature and theatre. This book tells the story of Shakespeare in the German-speaking theatre against the background of German culture and politics in the twentieth century. It follows the earlier volume by Simon Williams on the reception of Shakespeare during the previous 300 years (Shakespeare on the German Stage, 1586-1914). Hortmann concentrates on the two most important and fruitful periods: the years of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) and the turbulent decades of the sixties and seventies, when the German theatre was revitalised by a stormy marriage of avant-garde art and revolutionary politics. A section by Maik Hamburger covers developments in the theatres of the German Democratic Republic. Hortmann focuses on the most representative and colourful directors and actors, describing and illustrating individual productions as examples of particular trends or movements.

Professor Williams focuses on the classical period of German literature and theatre, when Shakespeare's plays were first staged in Germany in a relatively complete form, and when they had a potent influence on the writings of German drama and dramatic criticism.

For the Nazis, Shakespeare was a major cultural icon, whose works belonged to German culture more than to English and were therefore to be exploited for political-propagandistic purposes like those of any other German classical writer. Following an overview of the importance of Shakespeare in German culture, this book's three major sections investigate the controversy over the appropriate translation Shakespeare's plays to be read and performed, the effect of the new political-cultural climate on Shakespeare-scholarship, and the attempts of the Nazis to co-ordinate Shakespeare's works on the stage for propagandistic ends. This is the first complete study, entirely in English, to present the total picture of Shakespeare's fortunes in Germany between 1933 and 1945 in the context of Nazi cultural policy.

The Oxford Handbook of Shakespearean Tragedy is a collection of fifty-four essays by a range of scholars from all parts of the world, bringing together some of the best-known writers in the field with a strong selection of younger Shakespeareans. Together these essays offer readers a fresh and comprehensive understanding of Shakespeare tragedies as both works of literature and as performance texts written by a playwright who was himself an experiencedactor. The collection is organised in five sections. The opening section places the plays in a variety of illuminating contexts, exploring questions of genre, and examining ways in which later generations ofcritics have shaped our idea of 'Shakespearean' tragedy. The second section is devoted to current textual issues; while the third offers new critical readings of each of the tragedies. This is set beside a group of essays that deal with performance history, with screen productions, and with versions devised for the operatic stage, as well as with twentieth and twenty-first century re-workings of Shakespearean tragedy. The book's final section seeks to expand readers' awareness of Shakespeare'sglobal reach, tracing histories of criticism and performance across the world. Offering the richest and most diverse collection of approaches to Shakespearean tragedy currently available, the Handbookwill be an indispensable resource for students both undergraduate and graduate levels, while the lively and provocative character of its essays make will it required reading for teachers of Shakespeare everywhere.

First published in 1981, Michael Patterson's was the first book in any language to be devoted to the work of Germany's leading theatre director. Peter Stein's thoughtful and critical approach to a variety of dramatic texts - from Irish comedy to German classics, where his reputation largely rests - has resulted in a range of different acting and formal styles and some major textual adaptations. The rehearsing, performance and reception of these are thoroughly and vividly recreated here from interviews and archives and in the first-hand account of the workings of the theatre Stein made his own, the Schaubühne in West Berlin. Patterson discusses the apparent contradictions between the Schaubühne's original ideals as a model of socialist theatre and its present situation as one of the most highly subsidizes stages in Western Europe. Many productions are illustrated by photographs and imaginative reconstructions of particular scenes.

This book examines Shakespeare's influence and popularity in all aspects of eighteenth-century literature, culture and society.