Joel Lande is an Assistant Professor in the Department of German at Princeton University.

In Persistence of Folly, Lande... provides a well-researched study of the fool in German literature from the time of the English comedians to the great Faust dramas and Heinrich von Kleist's Broken Jug.... This is a valuable resource on a significant topic.(Choice) Persistence of Folly shows Lande's skill in implementing a large amount of historical and theoretical research to produce fascinating contributions to the way we read these plays. The book takes the reader on a journey along the fool's trajectory with carefully chosen examples that render his conclusions convincing and insightful, and pro- vides indispensable insights for any Goethe or Kleist scholar, or for those interested in German literary history in general.(European Romanitc Review) Photographic Literacy certainly offers a new way to think about the relationship between text and image in Russian modern culture. For this reason, it will doubtless be valuable not only to literary scholars and historians of photography, but also specialists in Russian cultural, social and intellectual history.(Europe-Asia Studies) It is the mark of a good teacher to present new knowledge in a way that inspires students to do their own thinking. Lande's book is an excellent seminar room—or traveling stage—for this kind of learning. Fittingly, he directs the fool to do this maieutic work, and the result is both entertaining and edifying(Goethe Yearbook) More than a literary history of German comedy or a study of the figure of the fool in dramatic texts, the analyses carried out in The Persistence of Folly exemplify and point to key methodological and theoretical reorientations of broader relevance(Modern Language Review) Lande's book is a complex and interesting investigation into the role of the comic in the development of German theatre from its popular origins in the 17th century to its 'classical' phase around 1800(Monatshefte) Lande's Persistence of Folly is one of the best works on German comedies in the Anglophone world in recent decades. It is an essential read for anyone interested in comedy studies and German literary history, and will appeal to scholars interested in form and genre theory as much as to scholars interested theories of performance(Athenäum: Jahrbuch der Friedrich Schlegel-Gesellschaft)

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I The Fool at Play: Comic Practice and the Strolling Players1. Birth of a Comic Form2. Strolling Players and the Advent of the Fool3. Practice of Stage Interaction4. The Fool's Space and TimePart II Fabricating Comedy and the Fate of the Foolin the Age of Reform5. Making Comedy Whole6. Biases in Precedent7. Sanitation and Unity8. Comedic Plot, Comic Time, Dramatic TimePart III Life, Theater, and the Restoration of the Fool9. Policey and the Legitimacy of Delight10. The Place of Laughter in Life11. National Literature I: Improvement12. National Literature II: CustomPart IV The Vitality of Folly in Goethe's Faustand Kleist's Jug13. Faust I: Setting the Stage14. Faust II: Mirroring and Framing in the Form of Faust15. Faust III: The Diabolical Comic16. Antinomies of the Classical: On Kleist's Broken JugPostludeBibliographyIndex

Joel Lande is an Assistant Professor in the Department of German at Princeton University.

In Persistence of Folly, Lande... provides a well-researched study of the fool in German literature from the time of the English comedians to the great Faust dramas and Heinrich von Kleist's Broken Jug.... This is a valuable resource on a significant topic.(Choice) Persistence of Folly shows Lande's skill in implementing a large amount of historical and theoretical research to produce fascinating contributions to the way we read these plays. The book takes the reader on a journey along the fool's trajectory with carefully chosen examples that render his conclusions convincing and insightful, and pro- vides indispensable insights for any Goethe or Kleist scholar, or for those interested in German literary history in general.(European Romanitc Review) Photographic Literacy certainly offers a new way to think about the relationship between text and image in Russian modern culture. For this reason, it will doubtless be valuable not only to literary scholars and historians of photography, but also specialists in Russian cultural, social and intellectual history.(Europe-Asia Studies) It is the mark of a good teacher to present new knowledge in a way that inspires students to do their own thinking. Lande's book is an excellent seminar room—or traveling stage—for this kind of learning. Fittingly, he directs the fool to do this maieutic work, and the result is both entertaining and edifying(Goethe Yearbook) More than a literary history of German comedy or a study of the figure of the fool in dramatic texts, the analyses carried out in The Persistence of Folly exemplify and point to key methodological and theoretical reorientations of broader relevance(Modern Language Review) Lande's book is a complex and interesting investigation into the role of the comic in the development of German theatre from its popular origins in the 17th century to its 'classical' phase around 1800(Monatshefte) Lande's Persistence of Folly is one of the best works on German comedies in the Anglophone world in recent decades. It is an essential read for anyone interested in comedy studies and German literary history, and will appeal to scholars interested in form and genre theory as much as to scholars interested theories of performance(Athenäum: Jahrbuch der Friedrich Schlegel-Gesellschaft)

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I The Fool at Play: Comic Practice and the Strolling Players1. Birth of a Comic Form2. Strolling Players and the Advent of the Fool3. Practice of Stage Interaction4. The Fool's Space and TimePart II Fabricating Comedy and the Fate of the Foolin the Age of Reform5. Making Comedy Whole6. Biases in Precedent7. Sanitation and Unity8. Comedic Plot, Comic Time, Dramatic TimePart III Life, Theater, and the Restoration of the Fool9. Policey and the Legitimacy of Delight10. The Place of Laughter in Life11. National Literature I: Improvement12. National Literature II: CustomPart IV The Vitality of Folly in Goethe's Faustand Kleist's Jug13. Faust I: Setting the Stage14. Faust II: Mirroring and Framing in the Form of Faust15. Faust III: The Diabolical Comic16. Antinomies of the Classical: On Kleist's Broken JugPostludeBibliographyIndex