When Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg published his “tragedy in five acts”
Ugolino(1768, first performances in Berlin and Königsberg 1769), he caused quite a stir because his innovative play appeared on the threshold between the decline of Enlightenment's neoclassicist aesthetics in literature and the dawn of the new poetics of
Sturm und Drang(Storm and Stress) that flourished after the discovery of Shakespeare's northern genius. Gerstenberg was the first to draw practical conclusions from the previous discussion about Shakespeare (see G. E. Lessing,
17. Literaturbrief, 1759; Gerstenberg,
Briefe über Merkwürdigkeiten der Literatur[
Letters on the Particulars of Literature, 1766-67]) as well as from the available editions and translations (William Dodd,
The Beauties of Shakespeare…
1069 words
Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Ugolino". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 April 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21633, accessed 21 November 2024.]
