The Battle of Hermann Braun: Transvaluing German Nationalism in Heinrich von Kleist’s Die Hermannsschlacht and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Die Ehe der Maria Braun.

: Although there have been impressive scholarly attempts to explain the brief reference to Kleist in Fassbinder’s Die Ehe der Maria Braun, none have noted the significant transtextual relationship between Fassbinder’s film and Kleist’s Die Hermannsschlacht and the manner in which this relationship sheds light on each work’s gendered critique of German nationalism. The parallels run much deeper than the name of the film’s antagonist, Hermann Braun, would suggest, although that name likewise locates both works at the intersections of gender and national identity. A closer examination of those parallels clarifies many of the well-established ambiguities in the film, particularly those surrounding the tension between liberation and nationalism, and challenges traditional assessments of Kleist’s nationalist drama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]