"This work examines the literary conceptions of "masculinity" in German and Italian dramatic texts of the late 18th century. On the basis of a historical-epistemological definition of masculinity and of contemporary theoretical models of "men's studies" in the 20th and 21st century, the following sample texts are analyzed: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm oder das Soldatenglèuck, Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Gèotz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand, Friedrich Schiller's Die Rèauber as well as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's/Lorenzo Da Ponte's Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni ossia il Dissoluto Punito and Cosái fan tutte o sia La scuola degli amanti."--Publisher's website.