Understanding Friedrich Dürrenmatt
This introductory volume explores the playwright's chaotic universe, where God has retreated beyond the stars and where blind chance is the real prime mover, justice is corruptible, ideologies useless, and tragedy no longer possible. Yet despite the overriding pessimism of Durrenmatt's Weltanschauung, the author argues that the playwright remains a genial master of comedy. Through the laughter he allows his readers to see that all is not lost, that there are virtues worth fighting for, and that there are still courageous Don Quixotes worthy of the title "hero."
Print Book, English, 1998
University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, 1998
Criticism, interpretation, etc
xxi, 220 pages ; 24 cm.
9781570032134, 1570032130
37725459
Biography
Earliest prose and dramatic works
The turn to comedy
Three detective stories
Two plays about ideologies and God's remoteness
The radio plays
Consolation from Dürrenmatt
The corruption of justice
Of heroism, failure, and resignation
Improbable grace
The adaptations
Four that failed: the late plays
The prose of the 1970s and 1980s
Conclusion