The War Mentality and The Brechtian Legacy (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Contemporary Drama in English, 2018
In her compelling study, Lara Stevens combines two key strands of discussion in contemporary drama which have received increasing attention in theatre criticism lately: the question of how theatre and performance engage with and protest against the 'War on Terror' on the one hand and the relevance of Brechtian epic theatre for twenty-first-century political theatre on the other. Interested in particular in "how contemporary anti-war plays work to influence spectator responses to the violence of war after the terrorist attacks of 9/11" (1) and with a considerable personal investment in the topic, aiming "to understand how deeply I [as a Western subject from an allied nation] was implicated in these conflicts" (1), Stevens examines the role of theatre as a locus of resistance where alternative spaces and perspectives can be created "outside the normative and highly controlled frames of the mainstream media" (2). Integral to the book's investigations and to its understanding of political theatre is Bertolt Brecht, whose model of epic theatre is fruitfully brought into dialogue with the political and philosophical conditions of a post-Marxist, globalised and postmodern world in order to shed light on theas Stevens convincingly arguessignificant value of Brecht's ideas for the contemporary stage.
After Brecht: the Impact (Effects, Affects) of Intermedial Theatre
Mettre en scène, 2008
This article addresses claims made about the impact of intermedial theatre with reference to examples of contemporary practice. In particular it makes references to Brecht in this context and differentiates between Brechtian politics and aesthetics. The professed aim of intermedial practitioners to dislocate the bearings of experiencers of their work and to afford new perceptions by means of a radical play between mediums appears to resonate, at the level of principles of composition, with Brecht’s “radical separation of the elements.” However, at the level of politics, Brecht’s drama sought a broader understanding of isolated individuals by inviting audiences to see their experience in connection with a total historical process. But, regarding the Marxist trajectory in which Brecht’s practice was located, the context changed markedly post-1968, and beyond recognition post-1989. The article thus proposes that a new formulation is required of the impacts of new perceptions elicited b...
No boundaries here: Brecht, lauwers, and European theatre after postmodernism
2013
In this article John Freeman focuses on theatre after postmodernism as exemplified by the Belgium-based Needcompany. If, as is suggested here, we are all more than a little 'postmoderned out' through an over-dependence on individualism, the shadow cast by postmodernism remains large in the contemporary Western world, and its impact is still clearly felt. As the postmodern came to offer a safety net through which bad practice could not easily fall, the modernist theatre it followed offered its own elusive ideal. In arguing this, Freeman forges links between Brecht's knowing embrace of amateurism and the faux uncertainty of much contemporary work, where Brecht the arch-dramatist becomes the archetype of the postdramatic, as twenty-first century theatre moves in the shadow of the past. John Freeman has written extensively on contemporary performance, creative learning, and arts policy. He is currently Associate Professor at Curtin University, Western Australia, where he leads the Humanities Honours programme.
Foreword to Studia Dramatica, 1/2018 (special issue)
Studia Dramatica, 2018
The paper presents the history of Romanian theatre, beginning with the creation of the first Romanian itinerant theatre company, at the middle of the 18 th century, to the present. It is intended as a foreword and a chronological framework to this special issue of Studia Dramatica. The year 2018 is the centenary of the union of Transylvania, Banat, as well as of Bessarabia and North Bukovina with the Kingdom of Romania. The " Great Union " at the end of the First World War, as known in Romanian historiography, crowned the Romanians' movements of national and cultural emancipation from the ward of the Habsburg Monarchy (followed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire), of the Ottoman and Russian Empires, movements initiated in the second half of the 18 th century and intensified in the 19 th. Given the celebration of the centenary of the Great Union, we intend to dedicate an issue of the journal Studia Dramatica to Romanian theatre, which we seek to revisit not only festively, but also critically. The history of Romanian theatre is slightly longer than one century: the first Romanian itinerant theatre company was created by several Transylvanian students, from Blaj, at the middle of the 18 th century, the century of the first attempts to create dramatic texts in Romanian. The first theatre shows in Romanian, in Moldavia and Wallachia, were performed in
Baleia na Rede, 2012
The article focuses on the possible relationships between cultural history and theater. In order to do so, it alludes to the different meanings that this art had in the West, especially from the point of view of the opposition between the dramatic text and the staging. A complex semiotic object, the theatrical phenomenon also encompasses the audience, which means that its historical narrative must encompass both sides of the scene. As a referral and exemplification of possible historiographical paths, three important titles by international playwrights, focused on questions of interpretive method, are examined: Marco
Wojtek Ziemilski’s 'Lehrstücke' or Post-Theatre à la polonaise
Polish Theatre Journal, 2018
The article is a recapitulation of Wojtek Ziemilski’s work, from his earliest intermedial productions (Map) up to the most recent productions, staged at publicly funded theatres (Come Together, One Gesture). An association with Brecht’s Lehrstücke provides a framework for bringing these formally disparate projects together. The author analyses Ziemilski’s pedagogic strategies, noting that his productions create a situation of transfer of knowledge not just with their form (conference, seminar, translation seminar, lecture, etc.), but also with their theme, which is often teaching or learning. The author observes that what differentiates Ziemilski from Brecht, making him into an undogmatic teacher is, first, the pivotal place unanswered questions take in his productions; and, second, the fact that he carries out the role of director as a mediator between various worldviews and paradigms.
Brecht's interactions with Greek tragedy are central and illuminating indicators of his self-positioning relative to the Western theatre tradition that preceded him. Part of the appeal to Brecht is the status of Greek tragedy as a particularly prominent manifestation of Tragedy, a cultural universal with a distinct set of ideological assumptions (political, social, religious and philosophical) that Brecht opposed vigorously. Brecht's relationship with Greek tragedy, and Tragedy, is both dialogical and dialectical: he needed Greek theatre, both its theatrical product tragedy and the theorising that came with it in the form of Aristotle's Poetics, as vehicles for opposition. As a result, Brecht's reception of Greek tragedy is (characteristically) utilitarian. This article examines various key aspects of this relationship: Brecht's educational background and predisposition towards Graeco-Roman antiquity; his points of contact with Greek tragedy; the use of the mask, a fundamental device of the ancient theatre, in Brecht's work; his ambivalent response to tragic situations and suffering as exemplified in Helene Weigel's 'silent scream' as Mother Courage; and the important methodological distinction between 'genealogical' and 'functional' equivalence. I conclude by setting out why this topic is an important part of any project which attempts to 're-think Brecht'. Brechts Auseinandersetzungen mit der griechischen Tragödie sind zentrale und erhellende Indizien seiner Selbstpositionierung gegenüber der vorausgehenden westlichen Theatertradition. Ein Teil der Anziehungskraft kommt vom Status der griechischen Tragödie als einer besonders bekannten und ungewöhnlich exponierten Form von Tragödie im allgemeinen Sinn, d. h. einer universalen Kulturform mit einer Anzahl von speziellen ideologischen Annahmen (politisch, sozial, religiös und philosophisch), zu denen Brecht in völliger Opposition stand. Brechts Verhältnis zur griechischen Tragödie, und zur Tragödie im allgemeinen, ist dialogisch und dialektisch zugleich. Er benötigte das griechische Theater, sowohl dessen Produkt Tragödie als auch dessen Theorie in Form der aristotelischen Poetik, als Vehikel und Anlass zum Widerspruch. Infolgedessen ist Brechts Rezeption der griechischen Tragödie, wie nicht anders zu erwarten, utilitaristisch. Der Aufsatz untersucht folgende Aspekte des Themas: Brechts Bildungshintergrund und seine Grundeinstellung zur griechisch-römischen Antike; seine BerührungspunkteBer¨Berührungspunkte mit der griechischen Tragödie; den brechtschen Gebrauch der Maske, eines fundamentalen B ¨ uhnenmittels im antiken Theater; seine ambivalente Reaktion auf tragische Situationen und das daraus entstehende Leid, wie es am Beispiel des 'stillen Schreis' von Helene Weigel als Mutter Courage besonders deutlich hervortritt; und die wichtige methodische Unterscheidung zwischen 'genealogischer' und 'funktionaler' ¨ Aquivalenz. Im Schlussteil lege ich dar, warum
BRECHTIAN CINEMAS: Introduction: Revisiting Brecht and Cinema.pdf
Brechtian Cinemas Montage and Theatricality in Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet, Peter Watkins, and Lars von Trier, 2017
Explores the influence of Bertolt Brecht’s ideas on the practice and study of cinema. In Brechtian Cinemas, Nenad Jovanovic uses examples from select major filmmakers to delineate the variety of ways in which Bertolt Brecht’s concept of epic/dialectic theatre has been adopted and deployed in international cinema. Jovanovic critically engages Brecht’s ideas and their most influential interpretations in film studies, from apparatus theory in the 1970s to the presently dominant cognitivist approach. He then examines a broad body of films, including Brecht’s own Mysteries of a Hairdressing Salon (1923) and Kuhle Wampe (1932), Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet’s History Lessons (1972), Peter Watkins’s La Commune (2000), and Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac (2013). Jovanovic argues that the role of montage—a principal source of artistic estrangement (Verfremdung) in earlier Brechtian films—has diminished as a result of the technique’s conventionalization by today’s Hollywood and related industries. Operating as primary agents of Verfremdung in contemporary films inspired by Brecht’s view of the world and the arts, Jovanovic claims, are conventions borrowed from the main medium of his expression, theatre. Drawing upon a vast number of sources and disciplines that include cultural, film, literature, and theatre studies, Brechtian Cinemas demonstrates a continued and broad relevance of Brecht for the practice and understanding of cinema.
Studia UBB Dramatica, 2017
The article argues the importance of a renewed approach of the proletarian and Agit-prop theatre in interwar Romania, as well as forms of political proto-performances, as sociological and political phenomena, more than as aesthetical ones, based especially on the research of primary sources. Due to the specific political context of the period and the harsh censorship, these primary sources are mainly to be represented by the files of the political police of the time, Siguranţa. Taken over by its communist successor, these files were manipulated and reinterpreted according to occasional political needs: any research of the original documents is an archaeological process dealing with both the analyzed activity per se and the politicization of archives during the 1948-1989 period.