Brecht and Tragedy

Brecht and Tragedy
Author: Martin Revermann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 491
Release: 2021-12-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108808085

This wide-ranging, detailed and engaging study of Brecht's complex relationship with Greek tragedy and tragic tradition argues that this is fundamental for understanding his radicalism. Featuring an extensive discussion of The Antigone of Sophocles (1948) and further related works (the Antigone model book and the Small Organon for the Theatre), this monograph includes the first-ever publication of the complete set of colour photographs taken by Ruth Berlau. This is complemented by comparatist explorations of many of Brecht's own plays as his experiments with tragedy conceptualized as the 'big form'. The significance for Brecht of the Greek tragic tradition is positioned in relation to other formative influences on his work (Asian theatre, Naturalism, comedy, Schiller and Shakespeare). Brecht emerges as a theatre artist of enormous range and creativity, who has succeeded in re-shaping and re-energizing tragedy and has carved paths for its continued artistic and political relevance.

Brecht and Critical Theory

Brecht and Critical Theory
Author: Sean Carney
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2020-07-24
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1000143228

Arguing that Brecht’s aesthetic theories are still highly relevant today, and that an appreciation of his theory and theatre is essential to an understanding of modern critical theory, this book examines the influence of Brecht’s aesthetic on the pre-eminent materialist critics of the twentieth century: Louis Althusser, Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Frederic Jameson, Theodor W. Adorno and Raymond Williams. Re-reading Brecht through the lens of post-structuralism, Sean Carney asserts that there is a Lacanian Brecht and a Derridean Brecht: the result of which is a new Brecht whose vital importance for the present is located in decentred theories of subjectivity. Brecht and Critical Theory maps the many ways in which Brechtian thinking pervades critical thought today, informing the critical tools and stances that make up the contemporary study of aesthetics.

The Play of Truth & State

The Play of Truth & State
Author: Matthew H. Wikander
Publisher: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 1986
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Fear and Misery of the Third Reich

Fear and Misery of the Third Reich
Author: Bertolt Brecht
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2016-11-17
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1472538145

Brecht's series of twenty-four interconnected playlets describe events which took place in ordinary German households in the 1930s. They dramatise with clinical precision the suspicion and anxiety experienced by ordinary people, particularly Jewish citizens, as the power of Hitler grew. Written in exile in Denmark and first staged in 1938 it was inspired in part by his recent trip to Moscow where he had been researching tasks for the anti-Nazi effort. This Student Edition features an extensive introduction and commentary and includes: a chronology of the Brecht's life and work; a synopsis of each playlet; an introduction to the context of the play; commentary on themes, characters, style and language; a review of the play in performance; notes on individual words and phrases in the text, and questions for further study.

Bertolt Brecht in Context

Bertolt Brecht in Context
Author: Stephen Brockmann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 676
Release: 2021-06-10
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1108634141

Bertolt Brecht in Context examines Brecht's significance and contributions as a writer and the most influential playwright of the twentieth century. It explores the specific context from which he emerged in imperial Germany during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as Brecht's response to the turbulent German history of the twentieth century: World Wars One and Two, the Weimar Republic, the Nazi dictatorship, the experience of exile, and ultimately the division of Germany into two competing political blocs divided by the postwar Iron Curtain. Throughout this turbulence, and in spite of it, Brecht managed to remain extraordinarily productive, revolutionizing the theater of the twentieth century and developing a new approach to language and performance. Because of his unparalleled radicalism and influence, Brecht remains controversial to this day. This book – with a Foreword by Mark Ravenhill – lays out in clear and accessible language the shape of Brecht's contribution and the reasons for his ongoing influence.

Brecht Plays 8

Brecht Plays 8
Author: Bertolt Brecht
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2015-04-23
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1472538560

The latest volume in Methuen's Collected Brecht includes two plays previously untranslated into English Volume 8 of Brecht's collected plays contains his last completed plays, from the eight years between his return from America to Europe after the war and his death in 1956. Brecht's ANTIGONE (1948) is a bold adaptation of Holderlin's classic German translation of Sophocles' play. A reflection on resistance and dictatorship in the aftermath of Nazism, it was a radical new experiment in epic theatre. THE DAYS OF THE COMMUNE (1949) is a semi-documentary account of the Paris Commune, and Brecht's most serious and ambitious historical play. TURANDOT is Brecht's version of the classic Chinese story is a satire on the intelligentsia of the Weimar Republic, Nazi bureaucracy, and other targets.

Modern European Tragedy

Modern European Tragedy
Author: Annamaria Cascetta
Publisher: Anthem Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2014-05-01
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1783081619

The idea of the tragic has permeated Western culture for millennia, and has been expressed theatrically since the time of the ancient Greeks. However, it was in the Europe of the twentieth century – one of the most violent periods of human history – that the tragic form significantly developed. ‘Modern European Tragedy’ examines the consciousness of this era, drawing a picture of the development of the tragic through an in-depth analysis of some of the twentieth century’s most outstanding texts.

A "new" and "historical" theatre in Bertolt Brecht’s "Life of Galileo"?

A
Author: Kristina Kolb
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 17
Release: 2009-11-23
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 3640476832

Literature Review from the year 2007 in the subject Theater Studies, Dance, grade: 90%, The Open University, language: English, abstract: Just like Brecht’s ideas about theatre changed throughout his career as a dramaturg and a playwright, most prominently embodied in the three different versions of Life of Galileo, moving away from the formalist epic theatre towards a dialectical one, so have our perceptions of the theatre, and what was new and revolutionary during the early years of the play’s production has now been reappropriated by high culture. While Brecht displayed a great awareness of the need to continuously adapt his play in order to not only make it appropriate for the times, but also to maintain it appropriate in the light of changing times, different productions of the play have only done so with limited courage and success, leading to the sad result that what Life of Galileo once embodied is usually not entirely what it embodies now.

Brecht and the Writer's Workshop

Brecht and the Writer's Workshop
Author: Bertolt Brecht
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2019-01-10
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1474273297

Brecht was never inclined to see any of his plays as completely finished, and this volume collects some of the most important theatrical projects and fragments that were always to remain 'works in progress'. Offering an invaluable insight into the writer's working methods and practices, the collection features the famous Fatzer as well as The Bread Store and Judith of Shimoda, along with other texts that have never before been available in English. Alongside the familiar, 'completed' plays, Brecht worked on many ideas and plans which he never managed to work up even once for print or stage. In pieces like Fleischhacker, Garbe/Büsching and Jacob Trotalong we see how such projects were abandoned or interrupted or became proving grounds for ideas and techniques. The works collated here span over thirty years and allow the reader to follow Brecht's creative process as he constantly revised his work to engage with new contexts. This treasure-trove of new discoveries is also annotated with dramaturgical notes to present readable and useable texts for the theatre. The volume is edited by Tom Kuhn and Charlotte Ryland, with the translation and dramaturgical edition of each play provided by a team of experienced writers, scholars and translators.

Drama From Ibsen To Brecht

Drama From Ibsen To Brecht
Author: Raymond Williams
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2013-12-31
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1448191866

With typical critical flair, Raymond Williams examines the development of the dramatic form from Henrik Ibsen to Bertolt Brecht. Taking an expansive view of drama from around the world, he offers the reader profound insights into the role of theatre in society and into the workings of dramatic language. This is seminal reading for theatre-goers and literature students alike.