Merle Zurawski

Kleist’s Michael Kohlhaas is a fascinating character, whose ambivalence still provokes debate today. Kohlhaas, the “good citizen”, decides to take the role of avenging angel upon himself in order to punish a provincial tycoon who has used corruption and his connections to avoid the consequences of the law. This Kohlhaas, a “most horrible” human being, ravages towns and murders innocent people, because the “system” has denied him, the injured party, the protection under which he usually carries out his otherwise very “peaceful trade”, and without which he ends up with the “savages in the wilderness”. Merle Zurawski implants the themes and conflicts, narratives and aesthetics of her own generation into the KOHLHAAS matrix and brings it into play with the present in a multi-layered, unsentimental way. The famous love for horses takes up a central motif of the story, but it is given a broader perspective. Kleist’s world is defined masculinity, taking us on a journey through status, power, money, terror and the preservation of order, but Merle Zurawski mixes in samples from the many voices of different genders, revolts, emancipation and solidarity, issues which are nonetheless up for discussion in the same competitive arena as Kleist’s masculine world.