INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Z eeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 INVERSION OF REVOLUTIONARY IDEALS: A STUDY OF THE TRAGIC ESSENCE OF GEORG BUCHNER'S DANTONS TOD, ERNST TOLLER'S MASSE MENSCH, AND BERTOLT BRECHT'S DIE MAENAHME DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Huimin Chen, B.A., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1995 Dissertation Committee: Approved by B. Fischer M . Roche yfyy.m Adviser L . Rugg Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures UMI Number: 9544530 UMI Microform 9544530 Copyright 1995, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyright by Huimin Chen 1995 To My Parents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I gratefully acknowledge the guidance and critical efforts given to me by Professor Bernd Fischer throughout the process of writing this dissertation. Many thanks go to the other members of my advisory committee, Professor Mark Roche and Professor Linda Rugg for their comments and suggestions. I also wish to express my thanks to many of my friends for their prayer and continuing moral support which remained a source of strength for me to finish this project. VITA May 30, 1957 ................. Born - Guangzhou, China 1 9 8 0 ........................... B.A., Guangzhou Institute of Foreign Languages, China 1 985........................... M.A. , Guangzhou Institute of Foreign Languages China 1987-Present.................. Graduate Associate, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio PUBLICATIONS Translation from German into Chinese "Die moderne chinesische Volksliteratur" in Journal of Popular Literature: V. 8 (Beijing University Press, 1983), 23-34. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: German TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......................................... iii VITA ....................................................... iv PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I. HEGEL'S THEORY OF TRAGEDY 4 II. GEORG BttCHNER'S DANTON'S TOD 42 III. ERNST TOLLER'S MASSE MENSCH 90 IV. BERTOLT BRECHT'S DIE MAJSNAHME 139 CONCLUSION 187 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 204 V INTRODUCTION The present study deals with the issues of the tragic in revolutionary drama. This research is motivated by the conviction that tragedy, because of its philosophical contextuality, interacts with human life regardless of historical and social changes.1 It is of profound importance to explore the tragic problem of a revolution because, as Albert Camus points out: "Die heutige Geschichte zwingt uns dazu, die Revolution als eine der wesenhaften Dimensionen des Menschen anzuerkennen. Sie ist unsere geschichtliche Wirklichkeit."2 This reality is inevitably reflected in literature, especially in the genre of drama. This project utilizes the Hegelian theory of tragedy to analyze the tragic in three selected dramas. Its purpose is to demonstrate that the dialectical principle of the Hegelian theory of tragedy indded reveals the tragic essence of the revolutions presented in these dramas. However, this study asserts that, contrary to the Hegelian solution of 1 This view opposes George Steiner's opinion that tragedy is dead because it is no longer possible in modern time. See George Steiner, The Death of Tragedy (New York: Oxford, 1980) . 2 From Albert Camus in L' homme revolte, quoted in Reinhold Grimm and Jost Herman, ed., Deutsche Revolutionsdramen, (Frankfurt a/M: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1968), 15. 1 2 tragedy, these revolutions do not end in synthesis. I also intend to show how the revolutionary theories presented in these dramas are actual applications of Hegel's philosophy of history. In that sense, Hegel's philosophy of history is itself prey to the contradiction described in his theory of tragedy. This project examines Georg Buchner's Dantons Tod, Ernst Toller's Masse Mensch, and Bertolt Brecht's Die MaJSnahme. The criterion for selection of these dramas was how the writers dramatize the problems that arise out of the paradoxical nature of a revolution. Reinhold Grimm and Jost Hermand point out: "Die Gro£e des einzelnen Revolutionsdramas bemiiSt sich daran, bis zu welchem Grad diese Antinomie erfaJSt und entfaltet wird."3 Dantons Tod, Masse Mensch, and Die MaEnahme expose the root problem of a revolution by dealing with its dialectical dimensions; hence these dramas can be understood as tragedies in the Hegelian sense, even though their ending contravenes the Hegelian conclusion of tragedy. In chapter one, I will first give an overview of the Hegelian theory of tragedy, then summarize the major criticism of his theory and finally offer my own view of this theory. In the following three chapters which deal with the actual dramas, I shall analyze the specific tragic problems innate in the revolutionary movements and show how 3 Ib i d . 3 revolution is problematized by Buchner, Toller, and Brecht. Brecht's view of revolution may appear different than that of Buchner's and Toller's because of the ostensible gesture of optimism shown in Die MaEnahme. However, as will be demonstrated later, his play actually contains an unintended deconstruction of the abstract model of the Communist revolution. CHAPTER I HEGEL'S THEORY OF TRAGEDY1 The Hegelian theory of tragedy is a special application of his metaphysical principle, i.e. the identity of opposites, or affirmation through negation.2 The universe as he conceives it is governed by rational laws, and everything in it can be rationalistically explained or justified. These rational laws are grouped according to their values in an ascending scale which ends in the Absolute or Idea. What seems to be discordant in the lower scale may be resolved into a higher harmony. The Absolute or Idea is the ultimate unity in which all opposites, discords and contradictions are dissolved: it is the universal in which all individuals lose their particularities. Such an ultimate Idea is not abstract, but concrete; the universal is immanent in the individual. This is especially true of art, for art is the Idea manifesting itself in a physical object, "das sinnliche Scheinen der 1 Hegel1s theory of tragedy can be found in various passages scattered throughout his works and his early definition of tragedy differs from his later one. The following is a summary of his second definition of tragedy. A discussion on the difference between the two definitions will follow. 2 Hegel, Wissenschaft der Logik II: Werke 6 (Frankfurt a/M: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1970), 64ff. 4 5 Idee."3 These two factors, Idea and material object, in common parlance are called "content" and "form". The Idea as such'is infinite, free and one; but when it has been issued in material objects which are finite, determined and plural, there is a contradiction. In art however, such a contradiction must be overcome: the two distinct sides of content and form, of unity and plurality, and of the infinite and the finite must be bound together to form an organic whole. In Hegelian language, the thesis and antithesis are melted together in a higher synthesis. Synthesis is the identity which reconciles opposites. Tragedy is a particular instance of art and as such it follows the general laws of the identity of opposites. In tragedy the opposites constitute the conflict, and identity takes the form of reconciliation. The content of art is the Idea, which consists of the essential universal and rational interests of humanity and the spiritual forces which rule the world of human will and action.4 Rather than deal with abstractions, art instead deals with the individual and concrete, material world, and these spiritual forces have to appear in the form of rational human emotions such as family affection, filial piety, parental tenderness, honor, duty, 3 Hegel, Vorlesungen iiber die Ksthetik I: Werke 13 (Frankfurt a/M: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1970), 151. 4 Hegel, Vorlesungen iiber die Ksthetik III : Werke 15 (Frankfurt a/M: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1970), 521. 6 loyalty, patriotism, and devotion to religion. These are what Hegel generally calls "sittliche Substanz". The personages in tragedy, according to Hegel, are the incarnations of these ethical forces. Each of the tragic characters identifies him or herself with one of these ethical forces and carries it through to the end with an uncompromising self-consistency.5 The ultimate power that animates a tragedy is then the Idea or, as Hegel sometimes calls it, the Divine Being ("das Gottliche")6. As the Idea is parcelled out among individual wills and purposes, the identity splits itself into opposites. The spiritual forces are isolated and exclusive, and as a result, they become hostile to one another.