The Works of Bertolt Brecht

The purpose of this research is to examine the positions of dramatic critics and theorists on the work of Bertolt Brecht. The plan of the research will be to set forth methods that various theorists use to discuss Brecht's writings, to analyze competing political readings of his plays, and then to suggest a depoliticized reading of his work that is keyed to his aesthetic theory. As appropriate, reference will be made to the sometimes contradictory positions taken by Brecht as playwright, political personality, director of the Berliner Ensemble, and dramatic theorist.

One important theorist of Brechtian drama is Brecht himself. His explanation of what he termed epic theatre can be taken as a starting point for understanding the context in which the pattern of ideas in his work and the means by which these ideas may be realized on the stage.

The actor used a somewhat complex technique to detach himself from the character portrayed; he forced the spectator to look at the play's situations from such an angle that they necessarily became subject to his criticism. Supporters of this epic theatre argued that the new subjectmatter, the highly involved incidents of the class war in its acutest and most terrible stage, would be mastered more easily by such a method, since it would thereby become possible to portray social processes as seen in their causal relationships (Brecht, Scene 85).

Preeminent concern with issues and ideas in virtually all of Brecht's plays is in kee

Related Essays

Antonin Artaud and Bertolt Brecht .... A conclusion will address their impact on the works of other playwrights, like In describing the goal of his epic theater, Bertolt Brecht (p. 1) wrote that .... (1514 6 )

Antonin Artaud and Bertolt Brecht .... A conclusion will address their impact on the works of other playwrights, like In describing the goal of his epic theater, Bertolt Brecht (p. 1) wrote that .... (1238 5 )

Bertolt Brech's Galileo .... Works Cited Abel, Lionel. Metatheatre: A New View of Dramatic Form. .... "Introduction." Galileo. By Bertolt Brecht. English Version by Charles Laughton. .... (3582 14 )

Artaud et al. .... This combination of the real and the overstated lent his works a kind of "superrealism in which the essence of life is captured by sharpening .... Bertolt Brecht. .... (2886 12 )

Challenges to the Enlightenment Ideology .... Theorizing the subject of man and what he is and what matters to him was essential in all of these works. The .... Brecht, Bertolt. "Collected .... (1961 8 )

gical positions of the characters in them or in the politicized design of the plays. This is so despite Brecht's specific attachment to political issues. In this regard, Abel's description of drama as metatheatre is predicated of dramatic forms that "are related to and take their life from values which are important outside of drama" (Abel viii). Brecht's work falls well within this description. As Abel continues, Let us look first at the proposition "the world is a stage." If one does not believe that individuals are real or their sufferings of any great moment, then do not all human actions, reactions, and expressions of feeling immediately seem theatrical? Now what was Brecht's most characteristic theatrical device? It was his deliberate insistence that feelings be played by his actors as if they were acted and not directly felt . . . . Whether, then, Brecht believed the world to be a stage or not, his plays, his concepts of acting and stage design, were all calculated to produce that effect. The reality in his plays is that of theatre and not that of life, except as the latter happens to become theatrical (Abel 105). The postmodern critic rereads Brecht not so much to take at face value what he does or says or

Category: Literature - T