«ICH BIN EIN REGISSEUR DES WORTS UND NICHT DER DEKORATION»:L¿ESTETICA TEATRALE DI LEOPOLD JESSNER: QUASI UN ÓRGANON

This dissertation aims at reconstruing Leopold Jessner’s theatre aesthetics through the analysis of his theatrical essays. Jessner was one of the most influential German theatre directors during the Weimar Republic. His figure came along in the cultural landscape in the same years the director’s theatre emerged in both Europe and Germany. Through the analysis, this dissertation also aims at rethinking Jessner’s theatre aesthetics in the artistic and cultural landscape of the Weimar Republic. The second chapter of the dissertation presents Jessner as a theatre director and focusses on the obstacles and labels that prevented a scientific evaluation of his work. The third chapter proposes an analysis of the author’s corpus. In order to shed light on the key aspects of Jessner’s aesthetics, the investigation is organised in four macro-sections: Der Theaterleiter, Zeittheater und Theaterpolitik, Regie und Schauspielkunst and Betrachtungen und Bekenntnisse. The fourth chapter summarises the results of the analysis and presents Jessner’s Stil des Wesentlichen, focussing on its key elements: the dramaturgical method, the role of scenic design, and of the actor and the relationship with the audience. The last section of the chapter investigates the correlation between Jessners’ Stil des Wesentlichen, Expressionism and New Objectivity.