Das Bild des Fremden in der Dramatik Peter Turrinis und Rainer Werner Fassbinders

Abstract

The following Master’s Thesis aims to describe the social and intellectual state of Austrian and German society after World War II through the perspective of two internationally renowned modern playwrights - Peter Turrini and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. As part of the Postmodern movement, the two authors share the view that “modern man” is in a state of self-alienation and strive, through exaggeration and an emphasis on travesty, to bring the intellectually and socially impoverished condition of modern society on stage. Both plays analyze the discrepancy between Europe’s democratic spirit in the mid-sixties and the mentality of everyday individuals (“Katzelmacher”; 1968), as well as the institutional-representatives nearly forty years later (“Ich liebe dieses Land”; 2001), who continue to consider foreigners as a threat and devalue those individuals as outsiders and marginal figures.