This paper aims to study the literary genre tragedy and investigate how it can be truly identified in the works of two authors of the German Enlightenment and Classicism: G.E. Lessing and F. Schiller. In order to reach this goal, it is necessary first to step back to the Greek antiquity and study the origins of this type of text. Additionally, some titles by Shakespeare and Racine will be taken into consideration as further support of our claims.
German literature; tragedy; Lessing; Schiller