Von Kraftmenschen und Schwchlingen

Provider and protector, lover, husband, fighter, seducer - masculine role expectations for men who lived around 1800 were wide-ranging. Put positively, they were challenging to live up to. Put more matter-of-factly, this ideal was almost impossible to achieve. As Christoph Kucklick states, ..".the masculine ideal in the 18th century derived its attractiveness from the impossibility to attain it." This book shows how attractiveness is expressed in German and Italian drama texts, in which the male figures are confronted with a variety of problems.