What is German literature in the 17th century?

in the 17th century, a brutal 3-year war broke out in Germany (1618-1648). This war is also called the religious war. In fact, German princes used the differences between Protestantism and the old religion to form two camps, each colluding with foreign forces, burning and looting on German soil. As a result of the war, Germany's population was reduced by one third, cities were depressed, fields were deserted, mines were damaged, and industry and commerce declined. Big and small princes only rely on endless exploitation of serfs to maintain their autocratic rule. This situation has left Germany in a backward state in politics, economy and culture for a long time.

In literature, the critical spirit of German humanists and the anti-feudal content of folk literature have also disappeared in this bleak era. Most writers born in the city are attached to the court and serve the princes. Some courts of the so-called reward culture have become the center of literary activities. At that time, the court blindly imitated foreign fashion, some took France as an example, and some accepted the influence of Spanish and Italian culture more. Poets, on the other hand, cater to the master's will and interest, and engage in writing. Their works are poor in content, full of gorgeous words, bizarre metaphors and piled up allusions, and become formal games. However, there are also a few writers who care about the people's suffering and the fate of the country, consider the future of the motherland's language and literature, and make contributions to literary theory or practice.

Opitz (1597~1639) saw Italian and French poets, such as Petrarch and Longsha, learn from ancient poetry, refine the language of their own country, and write national poems with strict meter. He thought that German poets should be able to do the same. In his German Poetics (1624), he absorbed the achievements of French and Italian literary theory and practice, discussed the principles and functions of poetry, distinguished the types of literature, advocated the purity of language, and discussed the meter of poetry. He formulated the rules of iambic and iambic, and advocated sonnets and Alexandria, which played an epoch-making role in the development of German poetic meter.

The poets Fleming (169~164) and Gryphius (1616~1664) both went beyond the narrow scope of German literary and art circles and opened up the field of poetry. The former traveled to Russia and Persia, broadening his horizons, while the latter roamed the Netherlands, France and Italy, and was exposed to the new achievements of European philosophy, science and art at that time. Under the influence of Opitz, they used various new poetic styles to write touching poems reflecting the sufferings of the times and their longing for peace. Gryphius's sonnet Tears of the Motherland (1636) summarizes the evils and horrors of war. In the end, he thinks that what is more terrible than death, plague, fire and famine is that many people have lost their souls. This is a famous representative poem in 17th century German poetry. Gryphius was also engaged in drama creation. He was the first writer in Germany to write a tragedy about citizens' life, but there was no response at that time. The real formation and development of German citizens' tragedy will wait for Lessing and Schiller more than 1 years later.

These poets all lived in the first half of the 17th century, and they had rich knowledge. They made some contributions to improving the German language, formulating poetic rules and so on, and made some preparations for the formation of German national literature in the 18th century. But they only learn from ancient Greece, Rome and foreign countries, and despise their own folk literature. Some literary historians call their works "scholars' poems", which is not entirely appropriate, but there are certain reasons.

in the second half of the 17th century, the novelist Hans Jacobs Christopher von Grimes Howe (1622? ~1676) is completely different from them. He inherited the tradition of folk story books in the 16th century, and under the influence of Spanish tramp novels, he wrote a series of novels from the standpoint of civilians, which broadly described the social features of Germany during the 3-year war. In this novel, the six-volume Adventures of Ximubuliqi Ximusi (1668~1669) is the most successful and popular among readers. Other novels are related to Ximubuliqi Ximusi, but they are independent.