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Friedrich Dürrenmatt.
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Biography EssayFriedrich Durrenmatt was the leading German- language dramatist of the generation after Bertolt Brecht. He dominated German, Austrian, and Swiss repertoires and was familiar to audience...
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The works of the Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990) combine surface realism with an absurd and almost surreal artistic vision, expressed in an abundance of oppressive, distorted, o...
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If Friedrich Dürrenmatt is a household word, it is as a dramatist. Two plays in particular have insured him lasting fame: Der Besuch der alten Dame (The Visit of the Old Lady, 1956; translated as...
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Friedrich Dürrenmatt was the leading German-language dramatist of the generation after Bertolt Brecht. He dominated German, Austrian, and Swiss repertoires and was familiar to audiences througho...
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Critical Essay by Adolf D. Klarmann
[Two facts stand out about Duerrenmatt's work], even upon a casual examination of his plays. Almost all have been reworked at least once, and almost all bear...
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Critical Essay by Edward Diller
Paradox and grotesquerie are more than stylistic devices for Dürrenmatt: they are his reaction to our world, a world which, in contrast to earlier times, has los...
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Critical Essay by Edward Diller
Dürrenmatt's assertions frequently cause a reader to stop precisely at a point where serious analysis of basic assumptions should begin. His statements on...
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Critical Essay by Stephen Tapscott
"I describe human beings," Friedrich Dürrenmatt writes, "not marionettes; an action and not an allegory. I have presented a world, not po...
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Critical Essay by Armin Arnold
[The early narrative pieces collected in Die Stadt (The City)] were the first tortuous steps of an author who was still feeling his way. No one knew that better than D&#...
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Critical Essay by Peter J. Graves
The writings of Friedrich Dürrenmatt are liberally scattered with disclaimers, warning all who would approach his works that they are dealing here with a creat...
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Critical Essay by Kenneth S. Whitton
Although Dürrenmatt himself has repeatedly repudiated any suggestion of an early Brecht influence, one would acknowledge, of course, that Dürrenmatt&...
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Critical Essay by Edw Ard R. Mcdonald
[It is Dürrenmatt's] conviction that tragedy cannot justifiably be mirrored in the dealings of a lone protagonist, since the latter's individ...
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Critical Essay by Sister Corona Sharp
The Dance of Death and the Triumph of Death are themes that appeared across late medieval and Renaissance Europe in the visual arts, poetry and drama. Death snatc...
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In the following essay Robinson examines Dürrenmatt's use of justice. She looks at how justice is depicted as paradox and how the characters "choose to play madmen, clowns or vict...
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The following is a favorable review of Dürrenmatt's Midas oder Die schwarze Lenwand.
The nucleus of the opusculum Midas oder Die schwarze Leinwand is narrated by one of its characters, t...
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In the following essay, Spycher examines Dürrenmatt's use of chance and coincidence, specifically in "Das Sterben der Pythia," in place of fate.
For decades after World War...
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In the following essay, Wright shows how Dürrenmatt explores what is real by juxtaposing scientific method and speculation in his detective novels.
Dürrenmatt's work so often pres...
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In the following review, Mueller praises Dürrenmatt, but is disappointed by Achterloo.
How I greeted the opportunity to review a new Dürrenmatt play when I first unpacked Achterloo. As a...
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In the following review, Wolfe compares the love scenes in the 1954 radio drama to the 1963 stage version of Dürrenmatt's Herkules. She contends that the love scenes were awkward in the ...
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In the following essay Yaron discusses how Dürrenmatt's use of specific and detailed stage directions yields an allegorical background for his plays.
When I undertake the writing of a p...
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In the following, Michaels examines Dürrenmatt's use of observation in Der Auftrag. Typical of his work, Dürrenmatt's characters are in a dichotomy—this time of not ...
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In the following review, Birkerts looks at the mind games and plot twists which Dürrenmatt has placed in The Execution of Justice and The Assignment.
Friedrich Dürrenmatt is best known o...
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In the following essay on Dürrenmatt's The Assignment, Scanlan explores the fragmentation of identity and "the paired themes of terrorism and literary realism."
The history...
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Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Friedrich Duerrenmatt
Critical Essay by Adolf D. Klarmann
