Date of Award
Summer 1944
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
Abstract
The way to recognition has been a slow and difficult one for Paul Ernst. The earlier literary historians were wont to dismiss him with a brief reference to his neo-classicism. His plays found very little response, and his name was often confused with that of the story writer, Otto Ernst. It was not until after 1927 that the literary histories of W. Nahrholz, A. Soergel, P. Fechter and H. Langenbucher devoted more space to the work of Ernst. Near the end of his life he received governmental recognition. He was also elected to membership in the Dichterakademie, and efforts were made to produce his plays on the stage. Meanwhile, in Germany, several dissertations have been written, and the Paul-Ernst Gesellschaft has taken an active interest in collecting hitherto unpublished matter: research articles, testimonials, bibliography, etc., and publishing them in the form of annual reports (Jahrbucher). In America also, an active interest is being displayed as is manifest by a Paul-Ernst society, and by recent articles in literary magazines, in the German Quarterly and in the Monatshefte fur Deutschen Unterricht. Also text-books of Ernst's stories are appearing in this country, and there are several theses and dissertations. One master's theses is at Chapel Hill university, and the other at Catholic university. The doctor's dissertations are: "P.E. and Schiller", Hans Boening, Michigan, 1938; "Social and Economic Ideas in the Works of P.E.", Walter Fahrer, Iowa, 1940.