In an authorial class with dramatists and authors of literary prose such as Goethe, Schiller, Thomas Mann, Brecht, and Kafka, Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) remains prominent in international evaluations of artistic genius when measured by enduring popular and artistic reception; legal, philosophical, and scientific criticism; and resonance of political rage. Scholars have long been fascinated by Kleist’s biography and works, in no small part due to his influence on authors, philosophers, political thinkers, and filmmakers, who regard Kleist as among the most accessible of “classic” artists — one whose relevance requires neither theoretical introduction nor literary-historical justification. The present volume addresses two centuries of engagement with Kleist and his works from an angle that has proven most important to their popular canonical status — his artistic and political legacies. What mattered to Kleist has mattered to centuries of readers, and thus all the more to artists and thinkers with similarly urgent messages to convey.
