Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
<jats:p>Dieter Forte's German drama <jats:italic>Luther und Münzer</jats:italic> (1971), and <jats:italic>Q</jats:italic> (1999), a first novel by the young Italian authors' collective “Luther Blissett,” both depict social and religious revolutions in early-modern Germany. Beyond formal (and mostly superficial) differences, the analysis of narrative details reveals certain common patterns in these two examples of “alternative literature”: re-inventions of historical characters, representation of religious and political institutions, and, above all, a re-interpretation of historical facts. These works and their respective receptions show how social criticism and political discontent have changed in Western Europe in the last thirty years.</jats:p>