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The dictum, regularly invoked with reference to Aristotle, that not only action and place, but also the time of the drama must be “uniform” has blocked rather than facilitated an understanding of dramatic temporality. For even the “closed drama” certainly knows forms of acceleration and dilation. Political drama in particular often turns less on the question of what than of when, on deeds that seem inevitably to come too early or too late. In this seminar, we will explore the various ways in which time functions in political dramas and ask what this can show us about the relation of political action to time, setting out from extant research (surprisingly meager) and working closely with selected dramas from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Readings from Gryphius, Shakespeare, Goethe, de Gouges, Büchner, Droste-Hülshoff, Büchner, Grillparzer, and others. In the last part of the seminar, initial research results will be presented in the form of a seminar-internal conference. Taught in German.