Historiographische Praxis und politisch...

Schiller-research is quite dissonant with respect to the question whether or not his second play, The Conspiracy (1783), is "republican" in a 'modern', political sense. Many readers have concluded that the historiographic approach displayed in the play was utterly implausible. This article summarizes the interpretations on Schiller`s historiographic practice and takes them to a deeper understanding of the political aesthetic the play is set out to expose. A close reading of the animal fable in the play, with a special focus on its anthropomorphic dimension, shows that ist political implications are rather diverse and exist side by side - a narrative technique that illustrates formally what has been addreessed as a 'play with different options'.