Bertolt Brecht, dramaturge, director, lyricist, and essayist, represents one of the most important personalities of 20th century European culture; not only because of his creative activity and talent, but also because of his moral ambition and intellectual power, which are reflected in his countless works.
He belongs to a generation shaped by the First World War and the subsequent period of poverty and unrest and experiences the end of the German Empire and Hitler's election as Reich Chancellor at close quarters. He then leaves Germany and in exile, nolens volens, he can devote himself to his greatest passion, the theater. But his theater does not explicitly deal with individual historical events; rather, it addresses the social conditions of a (capitalist) society in which "unbridled violence, oppression, and exploitation" (cf. Brecht 1697b: 479) prevail, which restrict and "corrupt" the working class, but also the theater (ibid.: 231). However, Brecht's view is not a pessimistic one: he also sees the potential in humanity (cf. ibid.: 668-669) and decides to create a new form of theater; one that does justice to the "scientific age" (cf. Brecht 1967c: 662) and has the power to change society.
Table of content
Table of content
1. Introduction
2. Brecht's political theater
2.1 Criticism of Aristotle's Poetics
2.2 Criticism of contemporary theater
2.3 The epic theater
2.4 The teaching pieces
2.5 Relationship to Marxism
2.6 Relationship to sociology
3. Conclusion
4. Bibliography
1. Introduction
Bertolt Brecht, dramaturge, director, lyricist, and essayist, represents one of the most important personalities of 20th century European culture; not only because of his creative activity and talent, but also because of his moral ambition and intellectual power, which are reflected in his countless works.
He belongs to a generation shaped by the First World War and the subsequent period of poverty and unrest and experiences the end of the German Empire and Hitler's election as Reich Chancellor at close quarters. He then leaves Germany and in exile, nolens volens, he can devote himself to his greatest passion, the theater. But his theater does not explicitly deal with individual historical events; rather, it addresses the social conditions of a (capitalist) society in which "unbridled violence, oppression, and exploitation" (cf. Brecht 1697b: 479) prevail, which restrict and "corrupt" the working class, but also the theater (ibid.: 231). However, Brecht's view is not a pessimistic one: he also sees the potential in humanity (cf. ibid.: 668-669) and decides to create a new form of theater; one that does justice to the "scientific age" (cf. Brecht 1967c: 662) and has the power to change society.
2. Brecht's political theater
Dauerten wir unendlich So wandelte sich alles Da wir aber endlich sind Bleibt vieles beim alten. (Brecht 1967a: 1031)
Did we last infinitely So everything changed But since we are finite Much remains the same.
2.1 Criticism of Aristotle's Poetics
Brecht, after his analysis of Aristotelian theater, sees the need to distance himself from this form of theater, as it is useless or counterproductive for his artistic needs and political intentions. His theoretical writing "On a Non-Aristotelian Drama" (Brecht 1967b: 227-336), written during the time when National Socialism ruled in Germany, reckons with classical theater and its main point, catharsis (cf. ibid.: 240). For Brecht, it is clear that "the usefulness of Aristotelian effects should not be denied; one confirms them by showing their limitations" (ibid.: 249), but in determining the function of mimesis and catharsis-"it becomes apparent that the imitation of acting human beings by the actors should trigger an imitation of the actors by the spectators [for the purpose of dissolving fear and pity]"1 (ibid.: 240) – he encounters the difficulty of using these methods for his theater: He wants to evoke "a completely free, critical attitude of the spectator, intent on purely earthly solutions to difficulties"2 (ibid.: 241), and this has been impossible since by means of catharsis. For this reason, he is forced to renounce empathy, at least temporarily (cf. ibid.).
2.2 Criticism of contemporary theater
„Das Theater wird langsam zu einem Puff für die Befriedigung von Huren“ (Brecht 1967b: 63)
"The theater is slowly becoming a whorehouse for the satisfaction of whores"
With the above sentence Brecht concludes his thoughts on the future of theater in 1922. He sees in contemporary theater not only an art form that leads to "the man of today becoming a fossil, a fool and superstitious fellow [who] cannot distinguish his own interests from those of his opponents and consents to feel in a jargon that is alien to him and no longer proper to any real human being"3 (ibid.: 90), thus creating a state of apathy that also affects society (cf. Brecht 1967c: 682). Contemporary theater also leads to the class struggle being faded out (cf. Brecht 1967b: 90) or even waged in favor of the ruling class:
„Das Theater, das wir in unserer Zeit politisch werden sahen, war vordem nicht unpolitisch gewesen. Es lehrte die Welt so anzuschauen, wie die herrschenden Klassen sie angeschaut haben wollten“ (ibid.: 358).
"The theater that we have seen become political in our time had not been apolitical before. It taught us to look at the world as the ruling classes wanted it looked at"
Brecht wants to counter this with a theater that shows the possibility of "transforming society" and conveys the "joys of liberation" from exploitation and subjugation (cf. Brecht 1967c: 687).
2.3 The epic theater
As a consequence of his social criticism, influenced by Marx, and the decision to renounce existing and proven forms of theater, because "this [current] theater is fundamentally anti-revolutionary, because passive, reproducing" (Brecht 1967b: 175), Brecht develops his own theory of theater, which is at first defined only negatively (" non-Aristotelian"), but then takes on concrete features and matures into an independent theory, that of epic theater. The difference between classical and epic theater is that "[theater] appeals not so much to feeling as more to the ratio of the spectator. The spectator is not supposed to experience, but to deal with" (cf. ibid.: 132). In his opinion, the theatrical arts must "strive for representations of the social coexistence of people that enable, indeed organize, a critical, possibly contradictory attitude on the part of the spectator toward both the processes represented and the representation" (ibid.: 244).
In order for this to happen, he develops the alienation effect: the object, the "self-evident", "is made incomprehensible in a certain way, but this only happens in order to make it all the more comprehensible" (ibid.: 355). This effect is in contrast to classical theater, because there "with everything "self-evident" (...) understanding is simply dispensed with" (ibid.: 265). Practically, this is to be done by "taking from the process or character what is self-evident, known, plausible (...) and [creating] wonder and curiosity about it"4 (ibid.: 301). An example of V-effects are the songs, which, in contrast to classical theater, are not part of the plot, but are "strictly separated" from it (cf. ibid.: 473). Among other things, they contribute to interrupting the sequence of events and to destroying the stage reality, so that a possible empathy of the spectator into the action is prevented. Music in epic theater is meant to bring out "social purposes" and relationships (cf. ibid.: 476), not to further involve the audience in the action and make them excited about the plot. In the drama "Mother Courage and Her Children," Brecht uses the "Song of the Great Surrender" to highlight resignation to the ruling class, not to "hypnotize" the audience (cf. Brecht 1958: 207).
2.4 The teaching pieces
As for Schiller the theater has the character of a moral institution (cf. Schiller 1784), so for Brecht it takes on the character of a pedagogical institution (cf. Brecht 1967d: 1022). The didactic play in epic theater is meant to educate and teach through the "reproduction of actions and attitudes that are to be socially positively evaluated" (cf. ibid.: 1022). The actor, and he alone5 6, is to be "drawn into the experience of learning, not confronted" (cf. ibid.: 1027). The teaching play is not meant to transfer given political attitudes into the actors, but to teach dialectics as a method of thinking (cf. Steinweg 1972: 118).
"The Measure"7 is one of the didactic plays par excellence: performed by four players and a mass chorus (cf. Brecht 1967d: 1033), the roles of the players can be "performed in a very simple and primitive way", so that no professional actors are needed, but even amateurs8 can participate. Through the performance of the play and the subsequent discussion, the actors themselves should reflect on the behavior of the characters portrayed and at the same time be introduced to dialectics as a political method.
For Brecht, however, the purpose of theater is still to entertain and amuse (cf. Brecht 1967c: 663) - which does not mean that theater cannot teach. But "if there were no such amusing learning, then the theater, according to its whole structure, would not be able to teach" (Brecht 1967b: 267).
[...]
1 „Es wird ersichtlich, daß die Nachahmung handelnder Menschen durch die Schauspieler eine Nachahmung der Schauspieler durch die Zuschauer [zum Zwecke der Auflösung von Furcht und Mitleid] auslösen soll“ (ibid.: 240).
2 „eine völlig freie, kritische, auf rein irdische Lösungen von Schwierigkeiten bedachte Haltung des Zuschauers“ (ibid.: 241).
3 „Der Mensch von heute wird zum Fossil, ein Dummkopf und abergläubischer Bursche, der seine eigenen Interessen nicht von denen seiner Gegner unterscheiden kann und darin einwilligt, in einen ihm fremden und keinem wirklichen Menschen mehr eigenen Jargon zu fühlen“ (ibid.: 90).
4 „dem Vorgang oder dem Charakter das Selbstverständliche, Bekannte, Einleuchtende [nimmt] (...) und über ihn Staunen und Neugierde [erzeugt]“ (ibid.: 301).
5 Brecht's theory of the Lehrstück is only fragmentary. Only Reiner Steinweg takes up Brecht's notes and forms an independent theory from them (1972).
6 “In principle, no audience is necessary for the Lehrstück” (Brecht 1967d: 1024). Since the play is only “instructive for the performers,” Brecht repeatedly rejected “performances of the “Measure” for this reason (cf. ibid.: 1035), since it would have no teaching effect on the audience.
7 About the content: „ Vier kommunistische Agitatoren stehen vor einem Parteigericht, dargestellt durch den Massenchor. Sie haben in China kommunistische Propaganda getrieben und dabei ihren jüngsten Genossen erschießen müssen. (…) [Sie müssen] die Notwendigkeit dieser Maßnahme der Erschießung eines Genossen (…) beweisen” (Brecht 1967d: 1034). “Four communist agitators stand before a party court, represented by the mass choir. They have been carrying out communist propaganda in China and have had to shoot their youngest comrade in the process. (...) [They must] prove the necessity of this measure of shooting a comrade (...)”
8 The spectator is torn out of his role and becomes a player himself (cf. Lehmann & Lethen 1978).
- Quote paper
- Claudio Salvati (Author), 2014, Brecht's Political Theater. A Sociological Study, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1271026
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