“A Monster in Its Breadth and Length”: Schiller’s Wallenstein and the Poetics of Scale

What happens when literary works are expanded or shortened? How does scale relate to literary form, and how do changes in size qualitatively impact a work of literature? This article explores the German play most famous for its gigantic length—Friedrich Schiller’s “dramatic monstrosity” Wallenstein—...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Modern philology 2020-08, Vol.118 (1), p.87-106
Main Author: Spoerhase, Carlos
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aesthetics
Drama
Dramatists
Schiller, Johann Christoph Friedrich von (1759-1805)
Theater criticism
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:What happens when literary works are expanded or shortened? How does scale relate to literary form, and how do changes in size qualitatively impact a work of literature? This article explores the German play most famous for its gigantic length—Friedrich Schiller’s “dramatic monstrosity” Wallenstein—and its reception up to the present day, using Schiller’s work as an exemplary case to theorize more general aspects of scale and scaling in literature.
ISSN:0026-8232
1545-6951
DOI:10.1086/709438