I want to start with this theory: The works of Georg Büchner succinctly encapsulate all the fundamental expressive elements of modern literature of our century.
Wilhelm Emrich: Georg Büchner and Modern Literature
Expressionism is derived from the German word “Expressionismus” and is essentially a German movement that emerged shortly before World War I, first in painting, then in poetry and drama. A precise definition of expressionism is difficult to pinpoint, but it can be seen as the expression and manifestation of internal, subjective emotions towards external, objective events and realities. “Today, this term generally has a broader usage than its existential meaning, and it is better to define it through a play that employs it, rather than by a critic using the term. However, in its most basic techniques, there is a strong thread of powerful and life-giving force in modern theatre that unites giants like Strindberg, O’Neill, Brecht, and Sean O’Casey.” Expressionists sought to abolish all the traditions and artistic rules of the past. Although expressionism has a close similarity to romanticism in its use of imagination and the mind, it distances itself by rejecting the novel, delightful, and emotional aspects of romanticism, and everything that was approved by the bourgeoisie. Instead, it stands as a dynamic and active movement that wants to address the needs of its time. Expressionism began as a stormy form of neo-romanticism and transformed into a dialectical and powerful form of realism. According to the definition of Herbert Read, an art critic, expressionism is one of the best ways of perceiving and expressing the world around us. In realism, actors sit on chairs and talk about the weather, but in expressionism, they stand on their chairs and shout about the issues of the world. Expressionism was not a movement that progressed in a specific direction; rather, it was like an explosion moving in multiple directions simultaneously. “German expressionists were not exactly the inventors of a new dramatic form, as they breathed under the shadow of three dominant currents of their time. Lyrical plays with social criticism, farcical performances, and the naturalistic movement that had appeared before 1910 in the works of Büchner, Wedekind, and Strindberg. All three currents contained forms of expressionism before its fruitful time. This is particularly true for Büchner, who in recent years has been a model for various groups of contemporary playwrights, ranging from surrealists to political realists and documentary theatre.”
In fact, many of the early signs of German expressionism can be found in the works of Büchner, especially in his play Woyzeck. In his short career as a playwright, he predicted many of the techniques of modern expressionism, so much so that all theatre theorists place his name at the forefront of modern world playwrights. Immediately after the first performance of Danton’s Death in 1902 and his masterpiece Woyzeck in 1913, his name rose to the top of the expressionist movement, and like the works of Wedekind, he gained attention from Max Reinhardt, the undisputed master of modern German theatre in the early years of the century. The question is why it took a century for others to follow Büchner’s innovations and continue his experiments; part of the answer lies in the fact that Büchner’s inventions in the nineteenth century were considered a leap forward, just as they were in the twentieth century. Before this, Woyzeck was noted for its realistic portrayal of characters and Büchner’s realistic view of the world around him, making it one of the first examples of realistic works. However, Büchner went further, delving into the internal conflicts of individuals, psychological crises, and the confusion of characters—especially Woyzeck—which brings him closer to expressionism.
“In expressionist dramatic literature, the doors of the main characters’ minds are left open so that the audience can observe their turbulent, confused, and chaotic mental processes and understand the crisis of their inner realities.” The play Woyzeck is also presented through the central character’s mind, and the reader encounters the characters, environment, and events of the play through Woyzeck’s mentality. On the other hand, expressionist drama is an analytical and psychological drama in which the mental and emotional states of humans are analyzed. “In this drama, there is an inner revelation, and the thoughts, mentalities, unconscious feelings, emotions, struggles, and abstract realities of the characters are expressed.”
Büchner, instead of relying on dramatic historical events and external actions of his heroes, focused on the psychological and emotional factors of humans and was one of the first German playwrights to base his character analysis on psychology. It was after Büchner that German playwrights gained the courage to speak about the most hidden and internal matters of humanity. In expressionist drama, the character becomes isolated and frustrated. In Büchner’s works, characters such as Lenz, Danton, Woyzeck, and Leons are highly isolated and alienated. Danton, cut off from the revolution and social and political activities, reflects on death in his isolation:
Danton: “I look at death. The thought of playing with it from this distance and behind questioning eyes is so alluring.”
“Lenz,” in his insane isolation, resorts to suicide, and Woyzeck, from his deep loneliness, feels cold and detached:
Leons in the play Leons and Lena profoundly feels emptiness and dejection:
Leons: “A terrifying futility reigns—futility is the root of all sin—people do all kinds of things out of sheer boredom. They study out of boredom, they pray out of boredom, they fall in love, marry, procreate, and in the end, out of sheer boredom, they die… Oh, how I wish I could be someone else, just for one minute… I wish there was something under this sky that would move me like that!”
The atmosphere in expressionist plays is often disturbing, subjective, nightmarish, and dreamlike. The nightmare, heaviness, and anxiety form the backdrop of these plays. The dreamlike, melancholic, and nightmarish world of Woyzeck is also portrayed in a very expressionistic manner:
Marie: “Don’t look at the moon, it’s red!”
Woyzeck: “Like a bloody knife.”
And in another scene:
André: “Can you hear it now, Woyzeck?”
Woyzeck: “No, it’s silent, everything is silent, it’s as if the world is dead.”
Fear of mysterious forces casts a shadow over the lives of the characters:
First voice: “Another sound—ugh! It’s like someone is dying, right?”
Second voice: “It’s terrifying! This awful gray fog is rising, and the beetles are buzzing like broken bells.”
The structure of many expressionist plays is episodic, with each episode like a scene or tableau that follows the others in a chain, each with relative independence. The structure of Woyzeck also has an episodic nature. Characters often lack specific names and appear with general titles: man, woman, father, mother, worker, soldier, peasant, people, prisoners, etc. These characters can represent social groups but lack individual identity. In Danton’s Death and Woyzeck, we encounter a large number of such characters: in Danton’s Death: soldier, lover, lady, maid, jailers, revolutionaries, and executioners; and in Woyzeck: soldiers, sergeants, drummers, apprentices, grandmothers, masters, policemen, judges, students, and children. “In expressionist works, the main character, when confronted with the social system, technology, grand and domineering establishments, the party, the government, and the military, undergoes a dissolution of identity and, unable to confront these phenomena, ultimately collapses, mentally shattered, helpless, and defeated.”
Büchner’s Woyzeck is a person whose fate is determined by the military, the medical profession’s scientism, and the shadowy groups of Freemasonry:
Woyzeck: [quietly]: “… The Freemasons, André, yes, that’s it: the Freemasons… we’re just flesh and bone, and we don’t have much luck. Whether here or in that world. I think if we go to heaven, we’ll deal with thunder and lightning… I’m just a miserable martyr.”
Woyzeck is a man who is despised and criticized by all the social institutions surrounding him. He is treated like a servant in the army. For a time, he is a tool in the hands of a medical scientist who uses him like a lab rat. His young wife deceives him and forces him to betray. All these factors create a crisis in Woyzeck, pushing him towards madness.
One of the characteristics of expressionist works is the use of long silences and pauses in contrast to long and elaborate dialogues, so that when delivering these lengthy dialogues, the speaker seems to be expressing his internal fears and anxieties.
Henry J. Schmidt, in his essay Alienation in Woyzeck—which will appear in this book—compares Woyzeck’s speech, specifically its communicative function, with the language of modern theatre, from the works of J. M. R. Lenz to Anton Chekhov and beyond, concluding that this language is now a common feature of modern drama.
Thus, we see that Büchner, long before the expressionist and modern movements of global theatre could even be imagined, was already employing many of the features of expressionist drama in his plays. Frenzied emotions, subjectivity, timeless plots, complex and melancholic characters, and violence—hallmarks of dramatic literature—first appeared in Büchner’s dramatic works.