From the Appearance Clock Structures in Schiller's Don Carlos

The article investigates the interrelations between ceremonial and dramatic principles of court representation and studies the principles shaping and regulating theatrical entrances in classicist tragedy. Starting from the organizational principle of the liaison des scenes which serves to coordinate the scenes of the drama and to ensure the flow of passenger traffic on stage according to the rules of the court Schillers Don Carlos reflects a fundamental transformation of the representational space. Thus, the stage of the court can no longer be defined as a space of appearance which is structured by the entrance of the king. Instead the onstage world is darkened and confused by the rise of the panoptic order which transfers the center of power to an inaccessible back stage and at the same time deprives the theater of the court of its organizing principle. A minute deconstruction of the act of making an appearance. in Schiller's play reveals the crisis of stage visibility and questions the role of theater in the postabsolutist monarchy.