V&R Unipress Seraphische Hexameterdichtung: Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstocks Messias und die Ependiskussion im 18. Jahrhundert

This volume embeds Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock's biblical heroic poem The Messiah (1748-1773) in the context of the contemporary discussion about the renewing German literature, in which the epic was considered the highest literary genre. Isabel Gunzenhauser makes it clear that the idea of 'aemulatio', the competition with the ancient and modern models with the absolute aim of surpassing them, is constitutive for the Messiah Klopstocks down to the smallest detail. For comparison, she uses other 18th-century Bible epics, which come from the imitators of Klopstock: Johann Jacob Bodmer's learned patriarchy Der Noah (1752), Christoph Martin Wieland's fairytale-like bible episode Der pryfte Abraham (1753) and Salomon Gessner's idyllic prose epic Die Abels ( 1758) .This volume embeds Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock's biblical epic poem Der Messias (1748-1773) in the context of contemporary discussion concerning epic poetry. In the middle of the 18th century the 'epos' was perceived to be the most important of all literary genres. It shows that the idea of 'aemulatio', i. e. the competition with both classical and modern models which distinctly aims at surpassing these paragons of poetry, is constitutive for Klopstock's Messiah. The biblical epic poems written by the epigones of Klopstock will serve as a comparison: Johann Jacob Bodmer's erudite ""Patriarchade"" Der Noah (1752), Christoph Martin Wieland's fabulous biblical epic poem Der pryfte Abraham (1753) and Salomon Gessner's idyllic prose epic poem Der Abel's death (1758).