«The Englishman» by J. M. R. Lenz as an artistic reflection of the crisis in a «Sturm und Drang» movement

The subject of the article is the little-studied in Russian literary science dramatic fantasy «The Englishman» by a representative of Sturm und Drang («stormy geniuses») movement J. M. R. Lenz. The task is to discover the extent to which the short volume play reflects the whole complex of Lenz’s personal problems to the end of the Strasbourg period of his life. At that time the writer is known to have realized the inability to live by writing and feared of returning to the homeland to his authoritarian father who predestined an entirely different way of life for him. Therefore, the situation similarity of the «Englishman» Robert Hot with the life circumstances of its creator is researched. Special attention is paid to typicality of the dramatic fantasy and its protagonist for the Sturm und Drang literature; its characteristic ideological and thematic constants are exposed. The research aims require reference to Lenz’s biography and history of the literary epoch which determine the use of the biographical and historic cultural methods. It is established that both the author and his main character rebel against their birth fathers as well as against the Heavenly Father. Both Lenz and Hot experience love failures due to class barriers and excessive idealization of their beloved. They both suffer from melancholy and suicidal inclinations. Alike other «stormy geniuses» (Sturm und Drang) writers, Lenz advocates the cult of passionate love, liberated from social regulations; a revolt against «fathers’» wisdom; the combination of promethean ambitions of a powerful personality and the enforced «protean» mimicry to the social environment. The emancipation of the autonomous «stormy» personality is limited by boundaries, socially and psychologically preconditioned. Scientific novelty of the study appears in qualifying «The Englishman» as a document reflecting simultaneously Lenz’s personality crisis and a crisis stage of the whole Sturm und Drang movement.

jakob lenz, the englishman, sturm und drang, autobiographical nature, revolt against fathers, cult of passionate love, melancholy, suicide, emancipation boundaries, crisis stage