Gerhart Hauptmann's Vor Sonnenaufgang: On Alcohol and Poetry in German Naturalist Drama

Hauptmann's Vor Sonnenaufgang follows Papa Hamlet and precedes Die Familie Selicke as the first Naturalist drama to equate traditional art and poetry with alcohol as a means of evading social reality. This prominent link reveals in detail how Alfred Loth in Vor Sonnenaufgang is the critically drawn expression of a misalignment of new science and old poetry that Hauptmann saw in himself and in fellow intellectuals. It also shows this drama's pivotal role in developments anticipating aspects of Brecht's "epic theater": the link of social and metapoetic themes teaching the audience to respond critically when a figure-or the play itself-emulates conventional art or poetry.