|
|
Article: Kleist, neglected genius
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- October 14, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1994 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
Heinrich von Kleist is one of the great neglected figures of
European literature. If he is known at all outside his native
Germany, it is chiefly for the short story, The Marquise of O,
which suffered the apotheosis of being made into a film.
His plays are rarely performed and that essential short text, On
the marionette theatre, is largely forgotten. Yet many critics
would set Kleist above Goethe and Schiller as a dramatist, and some
would set him above them as an artist.
His work is at once tragic, grotesque, hectic, tender, hilarious
and heartbroken, a powerful current in that underground of European
literature that includes Holderlin, Buchner, Diderot, Kafka, Rilke,
Witold Gombrowiez, ...