Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Sternheim, Wedekind, and Homo Economicus

1976; Wiley; Volume: 49; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/403969

1756-1183

Sol Gittleman,

Central European national history

How to deal with Carl Sternheim's sometimes heroic, sometimes preposterous bourgeoisie? Critics continue to debate this ambivalent dramatist's intention when he created his modern heroes for the cycle of plays Aus dem biirgerlichen Heldenleben.1 One group contends that Sternheim conceived of his middle-class patriarchs as intrepid and vital components of the New Society, embodiments of a Nietzschean dynamism which is ruthlessly triumphant.2 Others suggest that Sternheim intended to denigrate this Biirger-world and the hypocrisy of pre-war Imperial Germany.3 I should like to offer a possible model for Sternheim's patresfamilias in certain male types found in the plays of the dramatist who most significantly influenced Sternheim's ideas: Franz Wedekind, and in doing so, perhaps lend the weight of my argument to those who argue that Sternheim was primarily concerned with debunking the Wilhelminean society.