Das Groteske und das Absurde Im Modernen Drama by Arnold Heidsieck (review)

342 MODERN DRAMA December the impossible state of our existence, almost hell, at any rate not heaven. (123) I still feel surprise, sometimes, that I'm no longer twelve years old. (25) I am in the position of someone who hopes to win first prize in a lottery without havjng bought a ticket. (28) Aside from a few morsels like these, and several notes on his own theatrical work, the chief value of Fragments of a Journal will no doubt be found in the dead bones which the graduate student may transfer from it into the graveyard of a thesis. LEONARD C. PRONKO Pomona College DAS GROTESKE UND DAS ABSURDE 1M MODERNEN DRAMA., by Arnold Heidsieck, W. Kohlhammer Vering, Stuttgart, 1969, 144 pp. Price DM 12,80. Dr. Heidsieck is a scholar who has not yet freed himself from the colourless style and complicated syntax of the German university-Oberseminar, but I hope this will not deter the reader, for Dr. Heidsieck'sbook is excellent. It is refreshing to find a young critic, with a wealth of learning at his disposal, prepared to enter the lists against established authorities. The author carefully examines accepted theories on the grotesque and the absurd, concluding that the character and function of these two major forms of modem drama are inadequately described. It is the grotesque in which Dr. Heidsick is chiefiy interested. Unlike Wolfgang Kayser (Das Groteske in Malerei und Dichtung, Hamburg, 1960), he believes modern grotesque drama is not rooted in a long tradition, since, while often borrowing motifs from other centuries, the truly grotesque work today is not fantastic, mysterious or surrealistic; nor is it the mere portrayal of the misshapen . but the expression of a world deformed by man. Readers acquainted with the theories of Brecht and the works of Lukacs-with whom, incidentally, Dr. Heidsieck also does not agree on certain major issues-will not be surprised that the author places the grotesque among realistic forms of art, calling it the extremity of realism. It is neither tragic, nor comic, nor tragic-comic but· simultaneOUSly horrifying and· ludicrous, the flattened corpse of a man being carried like a flag, or Diirrenmatt's Ill, beaten to death by a criminal towns-folk, for having , as a youth, turned a girl into a whore and indirectly-since the whore married one of her billionaire customers-into the richest woman on earth. The author sees nothing tragic-comic about Diirrenmatt, an unorthodox view, but the argument is convincing. He has, perhaps, expressed what many of Durrenmatt 's admirers have felt about the effect of the plays and about the discrepancies between theory and practice. He considers Ionesco's RhinoceTos and the plays of Arrabal more grotesque than absurd. The distinction between the two types of theatre is well thought out and a welcome addition-though less easily understood-to the work done by Rainer Taeni (Drama nach Brecht, Basel, 1968). Of particular interest is Dr. Heidsieck's detailed analysis of Brecht's 'absurd' early works. Reading it, one wonders why Ionesco has never revised his very biased opinion of Brecht. On the whole I agree with Dr. Heidsieck's selection of plays, but wonder whether the long and very tedious discussion of Adorno's interpretation of Endgame is really necessary. Instead, the author might have devoted some attention to German absurdists, such as Hildesheimer and Dorst. Frisch and Diirrenmatt are often linked together in a manner which exasperates the latter. If Diirrenmatt reads this book, he will probably not agree with Dr. 1970 BOOK REVIEWS 343 Heidsieck'sdefinition of the tragi-comic, but he may well appreciate the author's evaluation of Frisch. Dr. Heidsieck brings 011t well the wide divergence in character and technique between the two Swiss dramatists and gives a revealing ac· count of Frisch's dependence on Brecht. Dr. Heidsieck~s book was a long time going· to press. Had the author been able to consider Diirrenmatt's more recent comments on Die Physiker (Theater Beutel Heft 9, September 1968), he might have revised his opinion of the play. Die Physikerfits into the grotesque scheme but should not be regarded as a political drama, and if Dr. Heidsieck...