Brecht and Tragedy: Radicalism, Traditionalism, Eristics

Description

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. Cover Half-title page Series page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements A Note on Texts and Translations Introduction: Radicalism, Traditionalism, Eristics Brecht the Radico-Traditionalist Greek Tragedy, Tragedy and the Western Tragic Tradition The Eristics of Reception The Structure and Goals of This Book: Point of Contact – Positionings – Comparatist Explorations Foundations Brecht’s Personal Library: A Disembodied Collaborator Crown Jewels: Brecht’s Knowledge and Use of Aristotle’s Poetics Jessner’s Oedipus (1929): Entrenching the Notion of ‘Schicksalstragödie’ Nietzsche? The Masks of Tragedy Part I Point of Contact 1948 1 1948: A Year of krisis Searching for a Home, Searching for an Audience The Politics and Pragmatics of Re-building 2 Professing Non-Aristotelianism: Brecht’s Small Organon for the Theatre (1948) The Need for the Small Organon What’s in a Name? Key Themes The Greek Presence (1): Revisiting Brecht’s Reading of Aristotle’s Poetics The Greek Presence (2): Points of Contact in the Small Organon Blind Spots Brecht’s Aristotle Appendix: ‘Criticism of Aristotle’s Poetics’ [First published in BFA 22: 171 f., tentatively dated by the editors to c.1935] 3 Utilizing Greek Tragedy: Brecht’s The Antigone of Sophocles (1948) Sophocles the Barbarian Genesis Homecoming with Hölderlin Translation – Adaptation – New Play: The Hybrid Nature of the Work The Problem of Antigone The Prologue(s): Contextualizing Tragedy Significance and Reception: A Silent Revolution 4 The Making of a Model: Antigonemodell 1948 Imitating, with Profit Countering Criticism Impact Two Designs and Their Implications Material Changes between the 1949 and the 1955 Editions Comparison with the Other Model Books Picturing Brecht and the Art of Productive Arrangement A Plea for Model Books Part II Positionings 5 The Other Other: Brecht’s Asia Establishing the Binary Looking at Brecht’s Asia via Greece Exploring a Destabilized Binary 6 Naturalism and Related Diseases The Closest Classic ‘Bourgeois Narcotics Trade’, or: What Is Wrong with Naturalism? 7 Schiller: Rival and Inspiration ‘An Enormous Talent …’ ‘… Without Any Value’? 8 Comedy and the Comic Comedy … and Brecht? Tragi-comedies: Arturo Ui and the Aristophanic Pluto Revue Appendix: The Pluto Revue Materials 9 Shakespeare and the Road Beyond Tragedy The Appeal of the Bard Translating Shakespeare: Point and Process Turning a ‘Tragedy of Pride’ into a ‘Tragedy of the People’ Brecht’s Coriolan, or How to Overcome Tragedy Part III Comparatist Explorations 10 The Tragedy of Mother Courage Mother? Courage? Tragic Themes, Tragic Ironies The Silent Scream Anti-tragic Chronotopes Mother! Courage! Kattrin, Brecht’s Classical Tragic Heroine 11 Brechtian Chorality Nomenclature and Phenomenology: Physical and Conceptual Chorality The Mahagonny Chorus and Operatic Parody The Unwise Elders of Thebes The Shifts in Mother Courage’s Capitulation Some Conclusions 12 Threepenny Opera: The View from Below Hybridity and Generic Elusiveness Tragic Modalities, Subversive Neo-Classicism and ‘Dark-Holism’ The ‘Pirate Jenny Song’ – and ‘Weaponized’ Brecht 13 Appellative Anti-tragedy: Gods, Parody and Closure in The Good Person of Sezuan Pushing Buttons The Epilogue and ‘Tragedy-Shaming’ Ridiculing the Divine The Songs of Shen Te ‘Justice’ and Shen Te’s sparagmos 14 Mahagonny: The Rise and Fall of a Dystopian City O polis, polis Tragic Recognition, on the Electric Chair 15 Anti-tragic Justice: The Measure (Anti-)Tragedy on Steroids ‘It Is Not Enough to Suffer’, or the Dangers of Pity Re-conceptualizing pathei mathos: Lehrstück, Tragedy, Lernstück 16 Heroism and Its Discontents I: The Epic Tragedy The Judith of Shimoda – Expansion, Commentary, Metapoetics A Problematic Concept Hybridity, or What Is a Brecht Fragment? (De)constructing the Heroic Legend Innovating Tragedy: The Focus on Process and Construct 17 Heroism and Its Discontents II: Galileo, a Tragic Hero of Science? A Graeco-Aristotelian Look at Galileo Comedy, Carnival and Power Galileo and the Small Heroes Conclusion: Brecht and Tragedy – Pulling Threads Together The Utility of Looking Backwards ‘Schicksalstragödie’ and Barbaric Theatre Form, Tragedy, Politics Tragedy, a Creative Playground Theory, Tragedy and Brecht’s ‘Greekness’ The Shadow of Euripides Positionings and the Role of Ancient Greece The Role of Empathy and Dissonant Responses Brecht’s Tragic Women Did Brecht Understand (Greek) Tragedy Better? Tragic Violence What Is Tragedy Good For? The Dialectics of Tragedy (and Comedy) Looking Forwards: Tragedy and Brecht for the Future Bibliography Index