Drama and Religion

Lessing used the stage as his "pulpit" when forbidden to publish in religious disputes. Some dramatists addressed particular religious views in tragedies or satiric comedies; others staged religious themes more generally or in metaphysical imagery. We examine the variety, nature and context of these stagings in texts by major German authors: L. Gottsched, Gellert, Lessing, Schiller, Goethe, Kleist, and Hölderlin. In English, with a German section (TBA) for those able and interested.