Germanistische Beiträge 37.2015
Refine
Year of publication
- 2015 (1)
Document Type
- Article (1)
Language
- German (1)
Has Fulltext
- yes (1)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (1)
Keywords
- Euripides (1) (remove)
The present contribution deals with the reception of the figure of Alkestis both in Greek antiquity (Euripides) and in German literature around 1900 (Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Rainer Maria Rilke). The contribution shows on the one hand that already Euripides had problems with the dramatic transformation of the antique mythological narrative into a tragic subject. On the other hand it shows that the two modern versions of the narrative of Alkestis around 1900 deal with it quite differently: Hofmannsthal’s free adaptation of the Euripidean Alkestis shifts the subject matter into a Dionysian context, in the light of Schopenhauer’s and Nietzsche’s philosophy, whereas Rilke implants themes and motifs of his own poetry in the narrative of Alkestis and amalgamates them with it.