This study investigated the criticism of the Logos in Botho Strauss's “Great or Small,” and “Time and Room”, and Mythos, which the artist proposes as an alternative. .
Botho Strauss pointed out that in a destination-oriented industrial society, as m ...
This study investigated the criticism of the Logos in Botho Strauss's “Great or Small,” and “Time and Room”, and Mythos, which the artist proposes as an alternative. .
Botho Strauss pointed out that in a destination-oriented industrial society, as modern people blindly followed only reason, humans became rather an instrument of reason. He has diagnosed that modern people are in a mental crisis situation by losing the purity of the original human beings.
In this regard, Strauss mainly portrayed in his works the uneasy consciousness and inner world of modern people who are in a mental crisis by losing their identity in the modern industrial society and unable to establish a smooth interpersonal relationship.
Strauss' play “Large or Small” reveals the contradictory human relations of modern people who are obsessed with instrumental reason through the gaze of the female protagonist, Lotte. Lotte, who was devoted to the family, is separated from her husband's affair, and goes on a trip to regain her lost and lived ego. As Lotte encounters a variety of people and situations during her travels, she finds out that relationships with couples and father-in-law, lovers, and other people are not truly a relationship of love or trust. She finds out how the people are transforming into an understanding relationship with the material or the pursuit of success.
She becomes increasingly isolated and desperate, leading to a delirious situation. However, even in such a situation, she does not abandon the spirit of mankind and the God who served as her spiritual support to the end.
“Time and Room” describes the problems of modern German society through the figures who stayed in the normal time, which is the measurable time of the present world, and the figures who experienced the living time, that is, mythical time. Those who stayed only in destination-oriented historical times show problems in a rational society, such as loss of humanity and narrow mindset. On the other hand, the characters who have experienced the mythical time show a more emotional and love-filled harmonious appearance. Strauss tried to remember and reproduce the mythical archetype, which is a universal and fundamental model that forms the correct norm and values of human life in order to overcome the crisis of modern people, along with the critique of instrumental reason in his work.
Strauss emphasized that modern people can overcome the mental crisis of modern society by refraining from reason-centered, purpose-oriented life, and by repeating and reproducing the mythical archetype, which is the spiritual root of man.