Baroque Lyric Poetry in a German Literature Class: Andreas Gryphius’s Sonnets as Life Philosophy

Abstract

Although the Baroque poet Andreas Gryphius has already been discussed many times critically, there are still numerous desiderata especially concerning the exploration of his lyric poetry. Some of his sonnets, which will be discussed here as well, have practically achieved the rank of canonical texts, but the majority of his poems have heretofore received only very little attention. It continues to be a very open question until today what relevance they might have for us today in general or for teaching literature at the university. We can accept this challenge best by first developing interpretive strategies for his voluminous opus. Through the careful analysis of a selection of his sonnets this study will identify a series of remarkable statements of universal relevance that will allow us to comprehend Gryphius’s texts not only from a literary, but also from a religious, philosophical, and ethical dimension. On that basis, it will be possible to approach more concretely the question why and how we can engage with Gryphius in a contemporary context, or in a course on German literature.