Sturm und Drang
The Sturm und Drang movement also paid a lot of attention to the language of a piece of literature. It is no wonder that Shakespeare, with his brilliant use of language, originality with complex plot lines and subplots, and multifaceted characters from all social classes, was seen as a model for German writers (Wilson and Goldfarb 287). Many writers of the Sturm und Drang movement considered themselves to be challengers of the Enlightenment. However, the movement is actually a continuation of the Enlightenment. Many Sturm und Drang plays showed interest in how society affects the individual, a common theme in many Enlightenment plays as well. However, Sturm und Drang “makes its own distinctive contribution to 18th-century culture, bringing attention to the power of the environment as well as to the contradictory and self-defeating attitudes present in every segment of society” (Liedner ix). Far before its time, the divergent style of Sturm und Drang shrewdly explored depression and violence with an open plot structure (Liedner ix). The Sturm und Drang movement rebelled against all the rules of neoclassicism and the enlightenment, first recognized Shakespeare as a “genius” of dramaturgy, and provided the foundation for 19th-century romanticism. Writers such as Heinrich Leopold Wagner, Goethe, Lenz, Klinger, and Schiller used episodic structure, violence, and mixed genres to comment on societal rules and morals, while doubting that anything would change. The Sturm und Drang movement was brief, but it set a fire that still burns intensely today.