ABSTRACT
Politically active and socially engaged from a young age, Georg Buchner suffered a critical setback when the circulation of his proto-socialist pamphlet collapsed, his conspirators were arrested and he was forced into political exile. His personal trajectory from political rebel to creative writer has been construed as a continuation of revolt by aesthetic means. Buchner’s documentary-style literary practice presents a critical engagement with history and a continuation of social critique through drama. An important political reading of Buchner is offered by the Hungarian Marxist and supporter of literary realism, Georg Lukacs. He defended Buchner’s materialist realism against ‘fascist misinterpretations’ which celebrate the work’s tragic despair. Marie’s adultery and Woyzeck’s murderous response are transgressive actions carried out in a God-less, hostile universe; they seem inevitable and futile. Woyzeck’s unsentimental depiction of the ordinary existence of lower-class characters conveys a social and materialist determinism that was clearly ahead of its time.
