Das Drama als Zitierimperium. Zur Dramaturgie der Sprache bei Harald Mueller

The aim of this paper was to analyse the phenomenon of language overload in Mueller’s plays (where the primacy of language goes beyond ubiquity) and to portray it as a constitutive element of a poetic and dramaturgical concept, at the same time as providing negative and sceptical literature and theatre criticism with a new aid to interpretation. The first section deals with the life, reception, search for form and literary classification of the author. The second part examines Harald Mueller’s socially critical approach and conception of characters. The third and central part is devoted to Mueller’s use of language: here the focus is on how the playwright’s specific way of working made him into a veritable linguistic researcher, and how he even devised his characters and to some extent the action of his plays on the basis of the material he collected. The partly problematic imitative nature of Mueller’s language model that results from this is here set against the (prejudicial) judgments typical of critics. A detailed phenomenology of the language variety used and the analysis of interactive behavior seeks to show what these (language) fragments are capable of achieving in creating the dramatic dialogue. Finally, the question is posed – not easy to clarify in the case of a playwright who sees himself as a voice imitator – of the nature of Mueller’s idiom and precise textual analysis is used to demonstrate that the "explosive force of the dirty joke" (Heiner Müller) is one of its key features. The fourth part of the work, which is entirely devoted to dramatic features, investigates, in line with its endogenous approach, the phenomenon of power on the one hand, and on the other, the playwright’s extensive use of quotations. While not based on any specifically poetological programme, this activity forms part of a preconscious impetus to write in which quotation performs a constitutive function. Quotation takes place both through montage in the conception of the characters and on the linguistic level. The quoting activity of the characters – literary quotes, musical quotes and overt intertextual references – complete the picture of a dramaturgical method based on a marked use of quotations that is both conscious and unconscious. Within this approach, in his quoting gestus Mueller goes far beyond what would in any case be inevitable inside a presumed inter-text, creating a stylistic principle which acquires an originality and idiosyncrasy that from a deconstructivist perspective puts it beyond all accusations of plagiarism.