Büchner, Georg - Maurice B. Benn (essay date 1976)
Maurice B. Benn (essay date 1976)
SOURCE: Benn, Maurice B. “Leonce und Luna” and “Lenz.” In The Drama of Revolt: A Critical Study of Georg Büchner, pp. 157-63; 186-93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
[In the following excerpts, Benn considers the tragic aesthetic of two works by Büchner, Leonce and Lena and Lenz.]
LEONCE UND LENA
Leonce und Lena is exceptional among Büchner's works. Firstly because it is a comedy. Secondly because, more clearly than any of his other productions, it was prompted by an external occasion. On 3 February 1836 the publisher Cotta announced a prize for the best German comedy, and it was this competition that supplied the immediate impulse for the writing of Leonce und Lena. The deadline for Cotta's competition was 1 July 1836.1 Büchner's manuscript arrived too late and was returned to him unopened, whereupon, it appears, he...
[The entire page is 7090 words long]
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