"In the 1950s and 60s, Friedrich Dürrenmatt bestrode the German-speaking theatrical world - and that of mainland Europe as a whole - like a colossus. He attained a status little short of sainthood amongst the literary public, underscored by numerous literary prizes, honorary doctorates and the publication of his collected works. The ninetieth birthday, to be celebrated in 2011, of the author, who died in 1992, appears, given the distance created by the twenty years which have elapsed, to be an appropriate occasion to examine the connection in his work between critical distance from the tradition and critical inscription into the literary narrative of that very same tradition. Literary theorists and critics from Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany and France raise in their contributions the issue of Dürrenmatt's relationships with the European history of ideas, the Ancient World, Shakespeare, Cervantes and German-language literature from the Enlightenment to the 'Vormärz', as well as his place in the literary pantheon post-1945. They show how Dürrenmatt managed to reactivate the tradition through critical writings targeted at his era, and how he fought right into his late prose period to champion the cause of the critically reflective individual's autonomous right of freedom of interpretation"--Publisher's description, back cover.