Franz Xaver Kroetz: The Construction of a Political Aesthetic

by Michelle Mattson

Overview

Franz Xaver Kroetz — banana-cutter, hospital orderly, fledgling actor and, more significantly, Germany's most popular contemporary dramatist of the seventies and early eighties. This study, which situates Kroetz's aesthetics in a political context, focuses on four plays that mark crisis points in his development of a political aesthetic. The breaks in otherwise very successful aesthetic models occur as Kroetz responds to changing social conditions.All those interested in Kroetz, as well as in broader aesthetic questions, will find that this book makes important breakthroughs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781859730799
Publisher:	Berg Publishers
Publication date:	07/01/1996
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Michelle M. Mattson Assistant Professor of Germanic Studies,Columbia University

Editorial Reviews

'Well worth recommending to students of post-1945 drama. At the same time, it is considerably more than just a students' introduction.'” —MLR

“This is a useful study about a controversial playwright... The ... argument is ... solid and convincingly presented.” —AUMLA

“'Mattson's book is a valuable contribution to studies of modern German drama; not only because it provides an extended case-study of one author's work but it also continues and applies highly interesting and productive arguments and ideas on dramatic form.'” —Theatre Research International

From the Publisher

This is a useful study about a controversial playwright... The ... argument is ... solid and convincingly presented.

AUMLA

'Mattson's book is a valuable contribution to studies of modern German drama; not only because it provides an extended case-study of one author's work but it also continues and applies highly interesting and productive arguments and ideas on dramatic form.'

Theatre Research International

'Well worth recommending to students of post-1945 drama. At the same time, it is considerably more than just a students' introduction.'

MLR

A critical study of one of Germany's most popular dramatists of the 1970s and 1980s, focusing on Kroetz's political evolution through four seminal plays. The study chronicle's the playwright's changing response to social conditions, his adoption and disavowal of Marxism, and the sticky aesthetics of political art in general. Mattson (German studies, Columbia U.) provides a historical context to his discussion placing Kroetz in a contemporary theatrical lineage beginning with Adorno and Brecht. The quotes and play excerpts cited are presented in the original German. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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