Walter H. Sokel (ed.): An Anthology of German Expressionist Drama: Prelude to the Absurd (1963)

“The literary upheaval that spread through Europe in the first decades of the 20th century found its distinctive form in Ger­man Expressionist drama, one of the forerunners of the mod­ern Theatre of the Absurd. The movement was characterized by revolt against prevailing mores and institutions, an at­tempt to capture the subliminal suggestiveness of the dream, and by extremism. This anthology, selected by Walter H. Sokel, Associate Professor of German Literature and Human­ities at Columbia University, illustrates the common preoc­cupations and the strikingly different techniques of the move­ment. Among the plays are:

Reinhard Sorge’s The Beggar, Carl Sternheim’s ‘comedy’, The Strong Box, two plays by the expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka, Murderer the Women’s Hope and Job, Georg Kaiser’s Alkibiades Saved, Walter Hasenclever’s Humanity, Yvan Goll’s The Immortal One, and Rolf Lauckner’s Cry in the Street. The last play, Brecht’s Baal (appearing here for the first time in Eng­lish in a translation by Eric Bentley and Martin Esslin) clearly indicates the direction to be taken by Brecht himself, and by others, and points the way to the spirit of Camus, Genet, and the nihilism of the mid-century.

Four manifestoes on their art by Kaiser, Ludwig Rubiner, Paul Komfeld, and Goll preface the collection, and in his detailed Introduction, Professor Sokel explores the social and literary origins of the works and interprets the play­wrights’ aims and techniques to give a clear and comprehen­sive definition of the genre.” (from the back cover)

Translated by Walter H. Sokel, Joseph Bernstein, Michael Hamburger, Jacqueline Sokel, Maurice Edwards, Valerie Reich, Bayard Quincy Morgan, Eric Bentley and Martin Esslin
Publisher Anchor Books, Doubleday, Garden City/NY, 1963
367 pages
via leninbert

Review: Leonard Quirino (Modern Drama, 1965).

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