Lessing and Kotzebue: A Black Studies Approach to Reading the Eighteenth Century

Summary

Introduction

DIE NEGERSKLAVEN. Ein historisch-dramatisches Gemählde in drey Akten (1796; The Negro Slaves. A Dramatic-Historical Painting in Three Acts) by German author August von Kotzebue (1761–1819) belongs to the German eighteenth- and nineteenth-century dramatic genre of Sklavenstücke (slave plays). Sklavenstücke articulate a nuanced critique of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade and thus bear witness to an early German-language discourse indicative of abolitionist currents. As a German-language transcultural contribution within the larger discursive abolitionist context, Barbara Riesche categorizes Die Negersklaven within the subgenre of plantation plays. Texts belonging to this subgenre are mostly set in the West Indies; the majority of characters are enslaved Black Africans, with a few white Europeans in positions of power, such as slaveholders and/or plantation owners. In these texts, visiting Europeans are confronted with the horrors of slavery through their interactions with enslaved Black Africans. The perspectives shared by the enslaved people compel the visiting Europeans to work on their behalf to facilitate domestic and romantic reunions while also working to end the brutal treatment they endure on the plantations, thus promoting the humane treatment of enslaved Black Africans.

This article addresses the marginalization and scarcity of scholarship on German-language abolitionist efforts and sentiments within German studies. I argue for an overall inclusion of slave plays in literary conversations concerning the Age of Goethe. Bringing slave plays and canonical literary works into dialogue with each other offers another layer of enlightened understanding through abolitionist advocacy. Slave plays confirm German-language critical engagements with slavery and abolition and allow for enriching interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches and methods in the field of German studies by way of broader, comparative examinations of race, gender, and social class. This engagement would yield insights relevant to transatlantic American studies, Black studies, and diaspora studies, all of which do not typically consider German-language contributions. Therefore, such engagement would not only expand the scope of German studies by including additional voices on slavery and abolition that are generally associated with American literature and history, but would also speak to the transcultural dynamics of American studies.