The heroes of Schiller's and Alfieri's plays experience the hubris and despair that arise from knowing that man is a god banished into a world of worms. In his study, Paolo Panizzo identifies a paradigm shift in the work of these late Enlightenment playwrights: from the old European idea of heroic stoicism to the new modern notion of heroic nihilism.

Autorentext

Paolo Panizzo, Universität Halle-Wittenberg und Universität Triest, Italien.