Theatre as intervention into trauma: Wolfgang Borchert's “The Outsider” and Erwin Sylvanus' “Dr. Korczak and the Children” in the post-World War Two German era

Abstract

This thesis examines the potential of theatre to serve as an intervention into past trauma. Wolfgang Borchert's The Outsider and Erwin Sylvanus' Dr. Korczak and the Children are considered as means by which to bear witness to the trauma of World War Two and the Holocaust in the post-World War Two German era. Chapter One examines art's perversion under the Third Reich. Chapter Two provides an overview of The Outsider and Dr. Korczak and the Children, and considers their reception in postwar Germany. Chapter Three establishes Trauma Theory as a framework by which to analyze these plays. Chapter Four considers the ways in which the plays bear witness to the trauma of World War Two and the Holocaust, and the ways in which reality became an ephemeral concept following the Nazi era. Chapter Five examines ‘choice’, ‘guilt’, and ‘ownership’ as stages in resolution of Germany's traumatic experience of the War.