[Born on 9 July I937, William Alun John Steer went up as a Scholar to St John's College, Cambridge in I955. After a brilliant undergraduate career he wrote a dissertation on Art and Commitment: A Critical Study of the Plays of Bertolt Brecht, I9I8-I946 , which yielded a number of articles of unusual interest. Alun Steer held teaching posts in the departments of German in the universities of Southampton and Newcastle (New South Wales), and in the Leeds College of Art and Technology. He was killed by a car in Canterbury on 29 October I987. This essay, originally the text of a lecture, is the last he wrote. We are grateful to his widow, Mrs Biddy Steer, for allowing us to publish it.]
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
I quote from the revised version: Friedrich Durrenmatt, Romulus der Große, in Komödien I (Zurich, I957); since the four acts of the play are not divided into scenes, I quote by act and page number.
2.
Friedrich Dürrenmatt , Die Physiker in Komödien II und fruhe Stücke (Zurich, I963), 355.
3.
Friedrich Dürrenmatt , Das Versprechen: Requiem auf den Detektivroman (Zurich, I958), 213-14.
4.
Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Theaterprobleme (Zurich, I955), 49.
5.
Karl Marx, "Thesen uber Feuerbach" no. II (I845). See Karl Marx: Early Writings, introduced by Lucio Colletti and translated by Rodney Livingstone (Harmondsworth, 1975), 423.
