Frank Wedekind by Sol Gittleman (review)

344 MODERN DRAMA December claims (p. 29) that the play "contains no new message:' Surely the message-if we insist on one-is found in this actor-politician who misuses the theatre for political ends? Why the concluding lines should be termed "vague (or absurd)" (p. 28) is also difficult to conceive. Though it is to Arnold's credit that he was able to include a discussion of Dur· renmatl's latest plays, which have a definite affinity with the Theatre of the Ab· surd. this aspect should not be over-emphasized, since the reader might be misled into misjudging the unique quality of Diirrenmatt's Grotesque Theatre, the essence of which has been totally neglected in this book. JOHN C. HAMMER Memorial University of Newfoundland FRANK WEDEKIND, by Sol Gittleman. New York, Twayne Publishers. 1969. 151 pp. (!'wayne World Authors Series 55) "The aim of this book," Professor Gittleman states in his Preface, "is a simple and direct one: to introduce a generally unheralded German literary figure to the American public." Lest students of the American theater or readers belonging to to the class of non-professionals be somewhat discouraged by Professor Gittleman's introductory statement, let this reviewer assure them that this presentation of Frank Wedekind is the work of a very well-informed scholar who has written a very readable and fascinating book. Since the Selected Bibliography on page 147 lists nine British and American studies of Wedekind and/or Wedekind-related studies-among them Claude Hill's "Wedekind in Retrospect," Modern Drama, III (1960)-and since a veritable flood of books and learned and general articles about Bertold Brecht unfailingly and logically acknowledge at some length tIte debt Brecht owes to his Porbild, Wedekind, Professor Gittleman might have omitted the word unheralded from his prefatory sentence given above. While Wedekind has benefitted by the light reflected upon him from Brecht, he does deserve (and is well worth) the special attention given him here. Considering the pre-occupation of the modern theater and of the movies with sex, and not forgetting the current arguments about sex-education in public schools, a serious study of Wedekind's "sex-directed" plays and other writings is a relevant and useful gift to the American public. The editors of the Twayne Series have obviously chosen a dramatist who might well experience a renaissance on the American stage. Certainly his play "Friihlings Erwachen" (The Awakening of Spring) should be performed or read now because in this Kindertragiidie (Tragedy of Children) as Professor Gittleman points out, Wedekind "focuses on the sexual awareness which develops in youth ... and underscores the roles of society in keeping its young people ignorant of their instinct . . . and therefore launches a withering attack on the stupidity of the adult world which righteously goes about the business of crushing everything which Wedekind considered beautiful and noble in youth." Since there are few translations of Wedekind's plays and other writings, we are indebted to Professor Gittleman for useful summaries and the translations of characteristic scenes. They are enough to make the readers of the book aware of the relevance of Wedekind's work for our time. Of course, one will have to read or see Erdgeist, Die Bilchse der Pandora, and Wedekind's other writings to determine who is right about him-those who were offended by the alleged obscenity of his plays or those who declared him to be one of the foremost moralists of Europe, as Thomas Mann did. The decision is difficult to make. Professor Gittle- 1970 BooK. REVIEWS 345 man appears to be of the latter opinion. More important to the student of the theater IS, of course, Wedekind's position as a dramatist. To this problem the author devotes a chapter entitled "The Place of Frank Wedekind." In it he states thal "in a half-dozen plays created during one decade of his life, Wedekind antici· pated many techniques to be found today in the modem theater of revolt." In this chapter Professor Gittleman succeeds admirably in bringing Wedekind doser to the non-German reader by emphasizing not only Wedekind's· predecessors )ike Lent, Biichner, Grabbe, and his greatest German diSCiple Brecht. but by relating...