Till Nitschmann, “Theater of the Maimed” (Konigshausen and Neumann, 2015)

In his new book Theater of the Maimed: Fictional Characters between Deformation und Destruction in Theatrical Works of the Twentieth and early Twenty-First Centuries (Knigshausen and Neumann, 2015) (Theater der Versehrten: Kunstfiguren zwischen Deformation und Destruktion in Theatertexten des 20. und fruhen 21. Jahrhunderts), Till Nitschmann, a postdoc at the Leibniz University of Hannover, analyzes key German theatrical texts. By finding recurring themes in diverse texts, he develops a model classifying “maimed theater” works. Within the plays of Ernst Toller, Bertolt Brecht, Friedrich Durrenmatt, Peter Weiss, Thomas Bernhard, Heiner Muller, Dea Loher and others he identifies issues concerning animals, machines, war, money and property, laughing, and exclusion, as well as relationship and sexuality. All in all, Till Nitschmann thus highlights the importance of the “maiming” within cultural discourses of the twentieth and early twenty-first-centuries.

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