The Atriden Tetralogie (1940‑45) by Gerhart Hauptmann (1862‑1946) does not express, as was thought after the war, the poet’s resistance to Nazism: on the contrary, the work conforms to the Nazi aesthetics and ideology imposed on the interpretation of the myth since the Oresteia of 1936, staged on the occasion of the Olympic Games. Hauptmann, however, re-functionalises the myth to express the emotional atmosphere of Germany during the war, to exalt sacrifice for the homeland and blind faith in the Führer, to represent the horror of defeat and the horror of the German cities reduced to ashes by bombing. In the last tragedy of the tetralogy, Electra, Hauptmann poses the problem of German guilt for the horrors of World War II.
Gli Atridi di Gerhart Hauptmann
Fornaro
2023
Abstract
The Atriden Tetralogie (1940‑45) by Gerhart Hauptmann (1862‑1946) does not express, as was thought after the war, the poet’s resistance to Nazism: on the contrary, the work conforms to the Nazi aesthetics and ideology imposed on the interpretation of the myth since the Oresteia of 1936, staged on the occasion of the Olympic Games. Hauptmann, however, re-functionalises the myth to express the emotional atmosphere of Germany during the war, to exalt sacrifice for the homeland and blind faith in the Führer, to represent the horror of defeat and the horror of the German cities reduced to ashes by bombing. In the last tragedy of the tetralogy, Electra, Hauptmann poses the problem of German guilt for the horrors of World War II.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
