Cited by Lukacs as a principal source of literary modernism, Walter Benjamin s s
tudy of the baroque stage-form called Trauerspiel (literally, mourning play ) is
the most complete document of his prismatic literary and philosophical practice
. Engaging with sixteenth- and seventeenth-century German playwrights as well as
the plays of Shakespeare and Calderon and the engravings of Durer, Benjamin att
empts to show how the historically charged forms of the Trauerspiel broke free o
f tragedy s mythological timelessness. From its philosophical prologue, which of
fers a rare account of Benjamin s early aesthetics, to its mind-wrenching medita
tion on allegory, "The Origin of German Tragic Drama" sparkles with early insigh
ts and the seeds of Benjamin s later thought."
