Staging Justice: Trials and the Law on the German Stage (18th- 21st century)

How have literary discourses on justice evolved in different historical and cultural contexts?

Trials and theatre plays share affinities on many levels. They both occur in a specific time and place, they both consist of performing and spectating, and they are both concerned with processing and understanding what we call ‘experience’. In the German-speaking lands, trial, interrogation and punishment scenes have recurrently been integrated and reflected upon in dramatic texts. Prominent examples include Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s “Götz von Berlichingen”, Heinrich von Kleist’s “Der zerbrochene Krug”, Peter Weiss’ “Die Ermittlung”, as well as more recent endeavours, such as Ferdinand von Schirach’s “Terror” and Milo Rau’s re-enactments.

By discussing and analysing the way in which these and other plays have encouraged reflections on legal processes and the institution of law on the German stage from the 18th century to the present day, this conference sets out to examine how literary discourses on justice have evolved in different historical and epistemological contexts. In particular, it will help define and assess how law is interpreted and applied in the texts, how the relations between law, society and power are outlined, and to what extent the staging of trials serves as a dramaturgic tool to comment on (and possibly criticise) contemporary legal practices.

Building on the “performative turn” in recent Law and Literature scholarship, contributions will offer in-depth textual analyses of exemplary courtroom dramas in historical or comparative perspective, as well as addressing more general aspects, such as the (a)symmetries between the dramatic urgency of legal processes and performance, the relations between fiction and reality in documentarian theatre, and the strategies with which authors and theatre practitioners raise the spectators’ awareness on juridical and moral questions.

This conference is organised by Professor Matthew Bell and Dr Daniele Vecchiato, and is open to all. 

For more information about the conference, download the event programme.

Please note

On 26 November, registration opens at 13.30 and the conference closes at 19.30. On 27 November, registration opens at 09.00. Sessions will begin at 09:30 and the conference will conclude at 14.30.