Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811).
The course is open to all students with an adequate command of German. Taught in German.
The Prussian aristocrat Heinrich von Kleist, who was compared by some to Aeschylos and Shakespeare, committed suicide at the age of thirty-four because "I have run out of options." We will examine his dramas and prose writings against the background of revolutionary turmoil in Europe and the Americas, and the Wars of National Liberation. We will use the visual arts, music and theater as additional tools of interpretation.
1. Trust no man.
Die Familie
Schroffenstein
2. Trust no god.
Amphitryon
3. Trust me.
Der zerbrochene Krug
4. A woman.
Penthesilea
5. Another woman.
Das Kaethchen von
Heilbronn
6. "Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles."
Die
Hermannsschlacht
7. "Tot ist er nicht, doch liegt er
auf
dem Ruecken
Mit allen Feinden Brandenburgs in Staub." BBrecht
Prinz Friedrich
von Homburg
8. "Von der Freiheit eines
Christenmenschen."
Michael Kohlhaas
9. "...sintemal ich von keinem Manne
weiss"
(Lukas I,34).
Die Marquise von
O.
10. Ritter, Tod und Teufel.
Das Erdbeben in
Chili
11. The Loss of El Dorado. "You should have
trusted
me."
Die Verlobung in
Santo Domingo
12. "What passion cannot Music raise and quell!"
Die heilige
Caecilie
oder Die Gewalt der Musik
13. In God We Trust.
Der Zweikampf
14. No Place Nowhere.