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Well, trauerspiel literally just means "tragedy." But when an English-speaking critic uses the word, I think it's shorthand for Bürgerliches Trauerspiel —literally "bourgeois tragedy."
From theatre's origins in ancient Greece up through the late Renaissance, only the misfortunes of noblemen and royalty were considered as a fit subject for stage tragedy: the sufferings of the bourgeois, let alone the proletariat, were simply not considered, well, tragic enough (i.e., the bigger they are, the harder they fall).
In the 18th century, though, there arose a vogue for tragedies featuring middle-class protagonists (coinciding, not by accident, with the economic rise of the middle class itself).
So the difference between tragedy and trauerspiel is in the social class of the characters, AFAIK. |
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