Description
Dr Pyes book deals with comedies on the contemporary German stage. The two questions it seeks to answer are: what are the essential elements of comedy, and what is the function of comedy and comical elements in contemporary German drama? These questions are particularly relevant in view of the fact that German theatre is often seen as lacking in humour, and that German critical literature tends to make the discussion of comedy and humour subservient to the analysis of non-comic, thematic issues. . . . integrates the recent theories of Jerry Palmer and Susan Purdie into what she terms an holistic approach, an approach which views comedy not just as an aesthetic phenomenon but as a means by which the opinions, principles, and conventions that are at stake in socially and psychologically precarious issues (such as personal identity and the relationship between men and women) are constructed and deconstructed . . . this theoretical approach is then applied to plays by Herbert Achternbusch, Elfriede Jelinek, Franz Kraver Kroetz, and Botho Strauss. . . . As the authors it deals wit have already acquired canonical status, the book is a major critical contribution to the study of contemporary drama and German literary history. Dr. Henk de Berg
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