Rat Teeth, Not Roses: Aesthetics and Politics of the Grotesque in Gerhart Hauptmann's Naturalist Theater

This article excavates the grotesque in the production, reception, and/or dramatic construction of two plays by Gerhart Hauptmann: Before Sunrise (1889) and Rose Bernd (1903). Recognizing the grotesque as an operative force in Hauptmann's plays establishes a central dynamic between empirical realism and a purposefully disruptive aesthetic in turn-of-the-century naturalism beyond the prescriptive mimesis that has often limited conceptions of naturalist theater. The article thus opens new possibilities for reconsidering the aesthetic innovations and political efficacy of early naturalist theater, and, consequently, its relationship to subsequent developments in German theater more broadly.