The Weavers (Modern Plays)
Set against the 1844 weavers’ uprising, the play turns poverty and anger into a collective social drama. Rather than focusing on one personal tragedy, it captures the moment when an oppressed community speaks at once.
Work Information
The weavers’ anger exposes the distortions of the wider society.
One of Hauptmann’s defining naturalist plays, it looks directly at labor and poverty. Using a historical uprising, it sharply shows how crowd pressure and individual weakness shape one another.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Methuen Pub Ltd
- Published
- 1980-01-01
- Pages
- 108 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 12.7 x 0.64 x 20.32 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780413476302
- ISBN-10
- 0413476308
- Price
- 3404 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Contemporary
Written in 1892, The Weavers was a response to an extraordinary, disorganised and doomed rebellion by factory workers in Silesia in the 1840s. Fifty years later, conditions had not significantly changed and Hauptmann's dramatisation, which places the workers centre stage, was a radical departure from German romantic drama. It is now considered a classic of socialist theatre and the first play with a collective hero. This edition also provides an introduction to the play and to Hauptmann's life and work. 'Hauptmann has written two or three masterpieces - a little immortal thing like The Weavers for instance' James Joyce 'His work stands with that of Ibsen and Strindberg as the source and inspiration of all modern drama' Eugene O'Neill.
Hauptmann (1892-1946) was influenced by the realist works of Ibsen, and began experimenting with naturalistic forms of drama. His best known plays include 'Vor Sonnenaufgang' and 'Die Weber'.