The Play of Mourning – Allegory in Baroque Tragic Drama

Abstract

The article analyses the concept of allegory included in Walter Benjamin’s dissertation The Origin of German Tragic Drama. The main emphasis is placed on the presentation of the allegorical interpretation of signs as a defensive reaction of the subject who is in a state of anomy and identity crisis. The allegory contrasted with the symbol reflects the baroque transformation of salvation history into the Naturgeschichte, the goal-less and deprived of any reference to absolute natural history. In this way, it becomes ideal means of expression for the game of mourning, which brings the melancholic subject out of crisis and helps him to form a new symbolic universe. The article shows the genesis of baroque allegory, its theological context and philosophical implications.