Cross-genre situation in Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz’s Die Soldaten

Abstract

J. M. R. Lenz’s drama “The Soldiers” (“Die Soldaten,” 1776) was based on the autobiographical material from the prose text called “The Diary” (“Das Tagebuch,” 1774). The cross-genre situation is however not limited to the selection of the events described in these two works. The nearly simultaneous work on both “The Soldiers” and “The Diary” allowed Lenz to enrich his drama with some epic structures and elements, and use several dramatic techniques in prose. The latter was a common tendency in the prose of Goethe’s time, and we can also find some epic structures in dramas of that time (such as the structure of history chronicles in Goethe’s drama “Götz von Berlichingen” or the bourgeois tragedy “Miss Sara Sampson” by Lessing who wrote it under the influence of the English sentimental novel), but the scenario in which the same story is presented both in drama and prose by the same author is unique. The article shows how Lenz incorporated in his drama the elements of some narrative genres such as the epistolary novel, didactic prose, and parable, mixing them with the dramatic forms of comedy, farce, classical tragedy, and bourgeois tragedy. The article offers a new interpretation of the widely acknowledged technique of fragmentary composition by Lenz: not only does it create the effect of “natural” perception of reality and keeps the spectator in suspense, but it also allows the writer to switch from one genre to another.