Schiller, "merely political Revolutions", the personal Drama of Occupation, and Wars of Liberation

Publisher： Rodopi

ISSN： 0304-6257

Source： Amsterdamer Beiträge zur neueren Germanistik, Vol.61, Iss.1, 2006-04, pp. : 219-240

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Abstract

The majority of Schiller's dramatic works are informed first by the selection and mechanism of expository situation, namely, some form of private or public usurpation. Beginning with Don Karlos (1787), Schiller employed the highly topical situation of occupation as an expository conflict in five of his last six completed dramas, each of which features a rapid transition from the situational exposition conflicts to the actual personal main conflicts that replace them. In contrast to his often disorienting portrayal of morally ambivalent characters in the second through fourth acts of these dramas, in the expository acts Schiller invokes occupation formulaicly to establish the compelling initial moral cause of the occupied population and its representatives.