Grillparzer’s Libussa: The Tragedy of Separation

In Grillparzer’s Libussa William Reeve provides an important interpretation of a work that has received little detailed attention from Europe and American critics. The play has been dealt with in a broader context in numerous monograph-length overviews or introductions to Grillparzer, but this time it receives careful consideration it deserves. Reeve not only offers a close textual analysis of the drama from the aspect of separation but shows how Libussa and its author fit into the development of the history of ideas in 19th-century Europe. He contents that Grillparzer’s work reflects Freud, Bachofen, Neumann, Nietzsche and Lacan.