Scaramutza in Germany: The Dramatic Works of Caspar Stieler - Hardcover

Scaramuzza, Scaramouche: the commedia dell'arte figure made a triumphal entry into German literature in the plays of Caspar Stieler (1632-1707). Transformed into a master of language and languages, Scaramutza--social critic, voluptuary, and mouthpiece for his author--ushers in a new type of comedy that depends more on the happy ending than on laughter for its effect. This study should both establish the significance of the long-neglected dramatic works of Caspar Stieler, already regarded as an important lyric poet of the German Baroque, and serve to initiate a reevaluation of German comedy and of the standard definition of the comic genre used by Germanists as Aikin explores the heroic or romantic comedy as a subgenre of literary merit. The study includes a discussion of Stieler's important contributions to the development of the German-language Singspiel and opera.

Judith P. Aikin, Professor of German at the University of Iowa, is the author of German Baroque Drama and one of the editors of the forthcoming two-volume edition of the collected plays of Caspar Stieler. Her studies of seventeenth-century German drama and dramatic theory have appeared in numerous journals.