Heinrich von Kleist and the Right to War
This essay explores the conceptualization of warfare in Romanticism. The focus is on two plays by Heinrich von Kleist, Penthesilea and Prince Friedrich von Homburg. I begin by discussing Carl von Clausewitz's influential understanding of conflict and the problems that arise when he attempts to explain the interdependence of warring parties. I go on to argue that in Kleist's dramas war is a competition between different languages of authority. When no coherent paradigm of agency emerges from this contest, the right to wage war is revealed to be anything but a guarantee that one knows how to do so.
2017 ◽
Keyword(s):
Keyword(s):
Keyword(s):
Keyword(s):
Keyword(s):
Keyword(s):
2012 ◽
Vol 1
(3)
◽
pp. 14-26
◽
Keyword(s):
Keyword(s):