SOURCE: "The Grotesque in Barlach's Works: Towards an Understanding of his World," in Essays on German Literature: In Honour of G. Joyce Hallamore, edited by Michael S. Batts and Marketa Goetz Stankiewicz, University of Toronto Press, 1968, pp. 62-95.

In the following essay, Anderson attempts to reassess Barlach's depiction of the grotesque in his plays.

The term "grotesque" appears but rarely in the writings of the sculptor-playwright Ernst Barlach. It must also be noted at the outset that very little investigation has been made of grotesquery in Barlach's works or of its origin and place within his Weltanschauung, despite the great bulk of Barlach criticism in recent years. To be sure, some of his works have been loosely described as "grotesque," but in fact, no major critic dealing specifically with the phenomenon of the grotesque has cited examples from Barlach's works either in the formation of, or as support...