SOURCE: Krispyn, Egbert. “The Pattern of Pathos.” In Style and Society in German Literary Expressionism, pp. 44-52. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1964.

In the following excerpt, Krispyn examines the trait of pathos, or the desire to awaken an emotional response in the reader, as one of the main characteristics of Expressionist literature.

The definition of the three main types of expressionist writing is inadequate for evaluating how closely work of other periods may be stylistically related to expressionism. A criterion must be sought which is independent of such themes and topics as hatred of Wilhelmian Germany or faith in a communist paradise. The negativistic, socio-political, and anarchic-humanistic subdivisions in the body of expressionist writing do, to be sure, represent abstractions from the multifarious ways in which the authors gave literary expression to their emotions and opinions concerning the human condition. Nevertheless, the literary categories thus obtained are still...