William Shakespeare’s reception and the resonance of his works and his aesthetics in German literature can hardly be overstated. No foreign author matches the enormous impact his works had on the formation of a German national literature during the Age of Goethe (1749-1832): he provided a northern model of how to compose plays considered equivalent to ancient works and suitable to overcome the predominance of Aristotelian dramaturgy followed in Germany in accordance with the model of French
classicisme. The history of Shakespeare’s reception went through several stages, beginning around 1600, and it continues until today on a two-pronged course, sometimes with poetic theory as the primary focus, at other times with translations and Shakespeare-inspired plays and their adaptations in…
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Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Shakespeare in German Literature". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 January 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=7213, accessed 21 November 2024.]
