This work examines the literary conceptions of masculinity in German and Italian dramatic texts of the late 18th century. On the basis of a historical-epistemological definition of masculinity and of contemporary theoretical models of men's studies in the 20th and 21st century, the following sample texts are analyzed: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm oder das Soldatenglück, Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand, Friedrich Schiller's Die Räuber as well as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's/Lorenzo Da Ponte's Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni ossia il Dissoluto Punito and Così fan tutte o sia La scuola degli amanti.

Martin Blawid, Offenbach am Main.