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Ambivalences du classicisme : Mahomet, de Voltaire à Goethe

2006, Franco, Bernard

Since the end of the 18th century, the literary exchanges between French and German theatres are much more numerous. Lessing uses Diderots ideas in his Hamburgische Dramaturgie ; the work is translated into French in 1785. French culture has a deep influence on Schiller ; his work is very successful with the French stage. But the reaction against Kotzebues and Ifflands « historische und Familiengemälde » brings Goethe and Schiller towards classics, in order to promote ideal world and tragic fate. Schiller translates Racines Phèdre, Goethe Voltaires Mahomet. But the tiny alterations of his translation build a new interpretation of the hero and the story. The cynical and fanatic character becomes a dreamer and is a true prophet. He thus represents an image of the poet. And Goethe tries to create a new work from the « untranslatable » aspects of the drama.