Theater has always served to challenge or confirm existing conceptions of the social order. It has continued to do so in a public space, even as reception of narrative and lyric texts found itself restricted increasingly to the private sphere. In German-speaking Europe, drama has used its public role to particular effect in expressing and shaping individual and collective identity (ideas of class, gender, nationhood), memory, historical and economic consciousness, and attitudes toward death. The relative importance of drama and theater performance remains visible today, for instance in the economics of theater production in Germany, and in the widespread ambivalence towards “Hollywood” and the entertainment industry. This course examines these themes in German-language drama and drama theory from the Thirty Years’ War to the late 20 th century. Primary readings are due to include works by Gryphius, Lessing, Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Büchner, Hauptmann, Schnitzler, Kaiser, Brecht, Weiss and Handke. Primary readings and discussion in German; some secondary work in English.