A Stage for Debate : : The Political Significance of Vienna’s Burgtheater, 1814–1867 / / Martin Wagner.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press Complete eBook-Package 2023
• VerfasserIn: Wagner, Martin,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Series: German and European Studies ; 49
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (232 p.) :; 2 b&w illustrations, 2 b&w figures

A Stage for Debate presents a detailed analysis of the repertoire of the leading German-language stage of the nineteenth century, Vienna’s Burgtheater. The book explores the extent to which the Burgtheater repertoire contributed to important political and cultural debates on individual liberty, the role of women in society, and the understanding of national and regional identity. The relevance of the Burgtheater as a forum for political debate is assessed not by the degree to which the performed plays transgressed established norms, but by the range of positions that were voiced on a given topic. Martin Wagner investigates the roughly 1,000 plays from across Europe that were introduced to the Burgtheater’s repertoire between 1814 and 1867 by combining a general overview with detailed interpretations of especially successful plays. Wagner reveals that the Burgtheater was significantly more involved in contemporary debates than the stereotype of this stage as an artistically refined but apolitical institution suggests. Drawing from theatre studies and German and Austrian studies more broadly, A Stage for Debate revises the history of one of Europe’s leading theatres.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Reassessing the Mid-Nineteenth-Century Burgtheater -- 1 What Makes a Theatre Politically Signifcant? -- 2 Making the Burgtheater Repertoire -- 3 The Scope of the Burgtheater Repertoire -- 4 Mourning and Reforming Obedience -- 5 Performing the Women’s Movement -- 6 The Drama of National and Regional Belonging -- Conclusion: The Mid-Nineteenth-Century Burgtheater as a Case Study -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index