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IRONY IN FRANZ WERFEL'S EXPRESSIONISTIC DRAMA BOCKSGESANG Defeat and failure of the Pan-German "Drang nach Osten" intensified the emergence of the new drama in Germany and Austria now characterized as "expressionism." It can be said to have been well under way by 1910 and finished by 1924, when the Ruhr was occupied. In the latter year, this drama was defined as "Das Ekstatische Theater" by Felix Emmel in his book of that title. Bernhard Diebold described it as a drama of intense emotional insight in his Anarchie im Drama (1925). In that same year, a survey of the elements of expressionism appeared in Das Deutsche Drama by Julius Bab and others. One of its most recent appraisals can be found in "Das Drama des Expressionismus " by Otto Mann.1 So far, however, scant attention seems to have been paid to one of Franz Werfe!'s most typical expressionistic plays, Bocksgesang, a neglect that has occasioned this essay. All critical opinion generally supports the view that this new form of drama is derived from Ibsen's Peer Gynt tradition and from such August Strindberg dramas as To Damascus.2 Some of its characteristic features include revolt against naturalistic-realistic modes and values; reliance upon characters as types rather than as individuals; presentation of emotional states reaching heights of ecstasy; resort to "der Schrei," so that characters in the throes of great emotion cry and exclaim wildly; emphasis upon the worth of man and need of spiritual brotherhood; occupation with symbols as means of making the subjective dramatically objective; and reliance upon dream-like distortion and incoherence to approximate the inner states of conflict. On the whole, the expressionistic drama has as many ramifications as does its concomitant German cultural phenomenon, expressionism in art, from which this drama took its name, if not its impulse.3 Bocksgesang displays these elements, but its strength as a play does not depend upon them. Its power and impact grow rather out of its basic, ironic perceptions and representations. Among these are the five considered herein: the character and role of the Jew, Feiwel, the filial piety ,of Mirko Milie::, the strength of the unconventional woman in the 1. Hennann Friedmann and Otto Mann, eds., Expressionismus: Gestalten Einer Literarischen Bewegung (Heidelberg, Wolfgang Rothe Verlag, 1956), pp. 213-239. 2. Carl E. W. L. Dahlstrom's Strindberg's Dramatic Expressionism (Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, 1930) is the first authoritative study devoted to this new kind of Strindberg drama. 3. Several recent books attest to the current interest in Gennan Expressinnism, e.g., Hans Konrad Roethel, Modern German Painting (New York, Reynal & Company, 1957). 410 1960 FRANZ WERFEL'S EXPRESSIONISTIC DRAMA 411 person of Stanja, the failure of the deluded scholar-rebel Juvan, and the revitalization of the elder Milics through disaster. Irony is a term as complex in its meanings as it is varied in its guises. In general, one associates it with the classical "recognition" and "reversal" that arouse in the audience such desired feelings as laughter or tragic pity. As considered in this essay, irony is that element of dramatic art whereby in both the characters and the patterned action of his dramatis personae the dramatist creates an illusion or promise of well-being that the audience either mow or fear will not be sustained through the end of the play. When he creates an introductory situation or state of affairs that promises one result but ends with a denouement that reverses the initial premises, the dramatist can be said to be presenting irony. It springs thus from skillful deception or dissimulation practiced by the artist. He· begins with dramatic situations that, though appearing simple and innocent, soon take unexpected turns. He tries to confound the confident or disconcert the hopeful as his characters reveal that, as in life, few actions tum out as one might anticipate. As soon as dissimulation enters the course of a dramatic action, a degree of irony must result. Such dissimulation and reversal give Bocksgesang its great tensile strength and dynamism.4 As Franz Werfel's widow has now revealed, the origin of Bocksgesang is itself the outgrowth of an ironic situation. For four years before their...

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