Search Results - Weiss, Peter

Peter Weiss

Peter Ulrich Weiss (8 November 1916 – 10 May 1982) was a German writer, painter, graphic artist, and experimental filmmaker of adopted Swedish nationality. He is particularly known for his plays ''Marat/Sade'' and ''The Investigation'' and his novel ''The Aesthetics of Resistance''.

Peter Weiss earned his reputation in the post-war German literary world as the proponent of an avant-garde, meticulously descriptive writing, as an exponent of autobiographical prose, and also as a politically engaged dramatist. He gained international success with ''Marat/Sade'', the American production of which was awarded a Tony Award and its subsequent film adaptation directed by Peter Brook. His "Auschwitz Oratorium" ''The Investigation'', served to broaden the debates over the so-called "Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit" (or formerly) "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" or "politics of history". Weiss's magnum opus was ''The Aesthetics of Resistance'', called one of the "most important German-language work[s] of the 70s and 80s." His early, surrealist-inspired work as a painter and experimental filmmaker remains less well known. Provided by Wikipedia