WHAT IS RADICAL? BÜCHNER AND BRECHT READ LENZ

Abstract

This article asks why the radical authors Georg Büchner (1813–37) and Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) were particularly interested in the life and works of Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (1751–92). The enquiry proceeds by reading Lenz's theoretical and literary works, such as his treatise Anmerkungen übers Theater (1774) and his plays Die Soldaten (1776) and Der Hofmeister (1774), through the later authors’ various writings. This article particularly focuses on all three authors’ use and analysis of observational writing for a radical, social purpose. It begins with a discussion of Lenz's stance on the imitation of nature in his writings on the theatre and how this affects his social commentary through realistic social depiction. This is followed by an examination of Büchner's use of Lenz's writings, particularly in the ‘Kunstgespräch’ section of the narrative fragment Lenz and in his play Woyzeck (1836), and then by Brecht's theoretical writing on the ‘realistic style’ (‘realistische Schreibweise’) in the history of German dramaturgy and his new approach in the adaptation of Der Hofmeister. The article concludes that Lenz's realistic style was taken up by his successors but that, especially in his depiction of and commentary on individuality, it maintains unique value in itself.