Abstract:The article deals with the manifestations of sentimentalism and triviality and with the problem of the preromanticism in the German literature of the late Enlightenment. Traditionally, such problems are analyzed in the literary studies apart from "high" literature. It is important to comprehend the nature of preromanticism as a distinct and remarkable phenomenon of the eighteenth-century literature (and not as an early stage of romanticism), the existence of which during several decades proved its vitality and uniqueness. Triviality, in its turn, existed as a part of the culture in G.E. Lessing's time, that is, to a great extent before Goethe. It should be marked that triviality had been manifested in literature long before the Enlightenment. Traditional and repeated themes and plots may be the markers of triviality as a cultural phenomenon.

Features of the interpretation of events related to the life and death of the Queen of Scotland, Mary Stuart (1542-1587), in the works of the outstanding German playwright F. Schiller (1759-1805) and his contemporary, the famous writer Christian Heinrich Spiess (Spiess, 1755-1799) is considered. The originality in the image of the last days of Mary by C. H. Spiess and F. Schiller is emphasized. The question is raised about the various literary and aesthetic positions of both German writers. Attention is paid to the review of works in various genres and genres of art dedicated to Mary Stuart by Spiess and Schiller. First, an analysis of the work of the author, which is secondary in the framework of German and European literature, is presented, since Spiess wrote his tragedy many years before the great German playwright. It is shown that Schiller’s tragedy was written with a characteristic thirst for epic coverage of reality, while the stage play of Spiess is more focused on the events of the last days of Mary Stuart’s life and turns into a chamber work. The results of the study can be used when giving lecture courses on foreign literature of the XVIII-XXI centuries, special courses on the literature of Western European countries, on the problems of classical literature in Germany, as well as literature of the Western European Enlightenment and pre-romanticism.

The paper focuses on two short stories by E. Marlitt (E. John, 1825-1887), a most famous German woman writer of the nineteenth century. One of them, "Schulmeisters Marie" ("Schoolmaster's Marie"), was published much after its being written. Although it was eclipsed by another Marlitt's work, "Die zwölf Apostel" ("The Twelve Apostles"), written simultaneously with it, it may be considered a successful beginning of the writer's literary activities as it exposes her considerable skill of characterization and plot making. The second of the stories, analysed in the article, "Blaubart" ("Bluebeard"), not only reminds the reader of an old folklore and literary plot but also provides at least two interpretations associated with either biblical Kain and Abel or, in a wider context, with the plots about rival brothers/families in the world literature (for instance, F. M. Klinger's tragedy "Die Zwillinge" ("The Twins") or Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet").

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