The Case of Hans Henny Jahnn ― Criticism and the Literary Outsider

Hans Henny Jahnn (1894-1959) is one of Germany's most controversial modern authors, in large part due to sharply diverging reactions to the depictions of sadomasochistic brutality, incest, and homoeroticism in his plays and novels. Jahnn's rank as a writer has long been a topic of intense debate between rival schools of critics, and his works have provoked extreme responses, both positive and negative, from a wide spectrum of scholars and writers. Thomas Freeman focuses on characteristic examples of different approaches to Jahnn: structuralist, psychoanalytic, Jungianarchetypal, Marxist, biographical, literary historical, postmodern, gay, and feminist. Freeman shows how behind the veil of objectivity, literary scholars often have a hidden agenda that is based on an emotional reaction to Jahnn's portrayal of homosexuality and violence, his negative images of women, and his worldview, which a number of critics have linked to some of the same ideological presuppositions as those of National Socialism.

Thomas Freeman is associate professor of German at Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin.