Heinrich von Kleist, Prinz Friedrich von Homburg – Was vom Drama blieb
Heinrich von Kleist, Prince Friedrich of Homburg – the Remains of a Drama

Heinrich von Kleist, Prince Friedrich of Homburg – the Remains of a Drama

Summary/Abstract: Heinrich von Kleist´s play is seen here as a dramatization of his own writing process. In the play the main character, the Prince of Homburg, is depicted as Kleist´s literaric alter ego. It is the time of a war on the eve of a major battle. At the beginning the prince is shown in a dream-like state, whereby elements of this state still reach his consciousness. Only through this dream experience the prince gains conscious knowledge of the existence of the subconscious – a sphere prior to his language. Back in reality the prince now is torn between the experience of the pre-verbal sphere and the conscious reality of language. From now on his yearning to consciously experience the world of the subconscious and the pre-verbal will determine his further ations. Back in the reality of war, Prinz Friedrich Homburg is supposed to verbally write down the orders he received. Yet, consumed by his wish to rationally understand what happened in a pre-rational world, he is incapable of literally writing down the orders which he was supposed to. At the same time oit is out of this incapeability that the further events in the drama will develop. Kleist hereby shows the prince as the creator of his own play, which was eventually caused by his efforts and the impossibility to grasp the outer verbal subconscious through the only language we have.

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