Roland Lysell is professor of Literary History at Stockholm University. He has published books an articles about Swedish authors such as Strindberg, Ibsen, Ekelund and Lindegren. His special profiles are Romanticism (Atterbom, Stagneiius, Almvist) and Literary Modernism and his apporach mainly hermeneutic. He is also a theatre critic and drama historian.
Abstract
In 1787 Friedrich Maximilian Klinger (1752-1831) published his drama "Medea in Korinth" declaring his distance from Euripides, Seneca and Corneille. Klinger's drama is a drama between several literary epochs. The personification of Fate/Schicksal and the three Eumenides (Alecto, Megära, Tisiphone) prove Klinger¨s dependence on Baroque 17th century drama, whrereas the monologues about "sweet pains" (süße Schmerzen) and the Jason character remind us of the late 18th century sentimental tradition and point forward.
In the last act we find many examples of Black Romanticism and the horror drama developed in the beginning of the 19th century.
In the Euripides drama there is no dialogue beween Medea and her sons. In Klinger¨s drama especially the dialogue with the children forms the essence of the fifth act.
The aim of my lecture is to reflect upon this strange mixture of genres.