Creative process, unfinished product : Friedrich Schiller's dramatic fragment ‘Die Maltheser’ : history, sources, reception and themes

Abstract

This thesis presents a comprehensive overview and a discussion of one of Friedrich Schiller's dramatic fragments, ‘Die Maltheser’ (The Knights of Malta). Schiller's correspondence and notes bear witness to the fact that the idea of writing the play worried him for at least fifteen years. No other project enticed, yet tormented him so strongly and for so long. For the light it casts on his creative thinking processes and development as a playwright, ‘Die Maltheser’ is widely considered by critics to be unique. Part One of this thesis introduces Schiller's fifteen small dramatic fragments ('small' compared with Demetrius) and discusses their significance, the evolution of ‘Die Maltheser’, and Schiller's other works concerning the Order of the Knights of Malta. Part Two analyses the historical background of ‘Die Maltheser’, Schiller's plot(s) and his deviations from history. It traces his sources and other possible influences, and illustrates his doubts and problems concerning the project. Part Three summarizes the turbulent history of Schiller's manuscripts and the editions of ‘Die Maltheser’. The subsequent detailed review of the dramatic fragment's reception over nearly two hundred years shows that, while most critics viewed 'sublime heroism' and 'moral excellence' as the planned drama's outstanding qualities, as with Schiller's other works, it was often used and misused for political purposes. Moreover, the divergent and at times contradictory critical interpretations attest to both the problematic and dynamic nature of the dramatic fragment and to the difficulties of trying to cast Schiller into a single interpretative mould. Part Four focuses on the two key concepts which, from the beginning, were at the heart of the play - the 'Greek form' and the 'passionate friendship' motif. The final discussion proposes that ‘Die Maltheser’ is the literary work that reflects most faithfully Schiller's aesthetic concepts and contains his most tangible endeavour to portray in the theatre his philosophical concept of ideal beauty.