Gryphius

[This page by Madeleine Brook]

Andreas Gryphius (1616-1664)

Gryphius is considered one of the most wide-ranging writers of the baroque period in terms of the subjects his work dealt with. His poetry and dramas are marked on the one hand by deep pessimism, a strong sense of life’s transience, and of the deceptiveness of external appearances, but on the other also by a firm belief in spiritual values.

His works include the following:

Comedy:

Absurda Comica oder Herr Peter Squentz (1658)

Tragedy:

Leo Armenius (1650)

Catharina von Georgien (1657)

Poetry:

Es ist alles Eitel; All is Vanity

Please click on the above links for further information.

Further Reading

Judith P. Aikin, German Baroque Drama (Boston: Twayne, 1982)

Erika A. Metzger and Michael M. Metzger, Reading Andreas Gryphius: Critical Trends 1664-1993 (Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1994)

Blake Lee Spahr, Andreas Gryphius: a modern perspective (Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1993)

Chenxi Tang, ‘International Legal Order and Baroque Tragic Play: Andreas Gryphius’s Catharina von Georgien’, Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift fur Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 88:2 (2014), 141-71

Further Reading in German

Gerhard Kaiser (ed.), Die Dramen des Andreas Gryphius. Eine Sammlung von Einzelinterpretationen (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1968)

Nicola Kaminski, Andreas Gryphius (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1998)