Talk:Bourgeois tragedy

Note

I don't think "Bourgeois tragedy" is the correct term in English for the theater genre described in this article. It appears that this article is the product of a non-native English speaker. Encyclopaedia Britannica describes the works mentioned in this article as being domestic tragedies. Specifically, Georges Lillo's work, The London Merchant, or the History of George Barnwell (1731), and Lessing's Miss Sara Sampson are categorized as "domestic tragedies". I suggest merging this article with the one on domestic comedy and then discuss its various manifestations in the different European countries. This would reflect standard English terminology for these genres. Even though it is not immediately apparent from the term itself, the protagonists in a domestic tragedy are indeed from the middle class.

Also 'bourgois class' is a somewhat redundant phrase in English. "Bourgeois" is a noun in English(in addition to being an adjective) and already means the middle class, so adding "class" is not necessary and sounds odd. It should read: the emergence of the bourgeois(or of the middle class) and its ideals, etc.

For reference: [1] Lessing (in Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim: Rising reputation as dramatist and critic.) ...some witty epigrams, the edition contained the most important of his Leipzig comedies. It also contained Miss Sara Sampson, which is the first major bürgerliches Trauerspiel, or domestic tragedy, in German literature. Middle-class writers had long wanted to do away with the traditional class distinctions in literature, whereby heroic and tragic themes were played out by...

[2] English dramatist of pioneer importance in whose domestic tragedy The London Merchant: or, the History of George Barnwell (1731) members of the middle class replaced the customary aristocratic or royal heroes.

"Trauerspiel" completely incorrect

I urge whoever created this page to consult Walter Benjamin's "Origin of German Tragic Drama." The definition of "Trauerspiel" here is completely backward. There is a difference between the genres Trauerspiel (mourning play) and Tragoedie (tragic drama, proper): the former was seventeenth century and the latter was mid/late-eighteenth century. I'd rewrite the whole thing myself but unfortunately I do not have the time.

24.7.65.114 (talk) 02:06, 19 October 2009 (UTC)