Das "Freudenspiel" als hybride Gattung

Harsdörffer wrote several "Freudenspiele" that are largely unknown today and also attempted to define the genre of the "Freudenspiel". These considerations as well as his reflections on comedy will be systematically elaborated in this project and confronted with other contemporary approaches. Freudenspiele have also been written by other authors, but they are very different from Harsdörffer's poetic productions. Thus, a central question is how the different types of comedy can be determined in a genre-theoretically differentiated way and described in a function-analytical interpretation of the plays. Harsdörffer's Freudenspiele are based on French, Spanish and English sources, are partial translations and adaptations, but at the same time also new creations, which must be appreciated in their independence and originality in comparison with the European models. Another special feature of Harsdörffer's theoretical and practical work on the drama is his close relationship to emblematics and the fine arts, in Japeta for example in the form of the frontispiece, but also to music. Thus, one of Harsdörffer's plays of joy was written as a libretto for an opera. Harsdörffer's pieces are organized intermedially and intertextually in a complex way. Little attention has been paid so far to the rhetorical-argumentative and intertextual organizational structure of the plays, which goes far beyond the mere allegorical depiction of political conditions, to the self-reflexive character comedy that results from the extensive use of language games - as well as to the relationship between language games, wit, and reason in general.