Reviews as Re-Views: Onymity, Pseudonymity, Anonymity, and Kotzebue’s Life

Abstract

Abstract:This article builds on the etymological roots of the term “review” to explore the idea of the review as a re-view and to examine its metaphorical implications and fictional potential. Drawing on the German author and playwright August von Kotzebue, who had featured prominently on the British stage before he was assassinated in 1819, this article discusses Kotzebue’s onymous weekly Literarisches Wochenblatt, the pseudonymous literary mystification of epistolary reviews from the underworld, and anonymous reviews of Kotzebue’s biography in the British press as three modes of critical communication.