Bertolt Brecht and Epic Theatre

Bertolt Brecht and Epic Theatre

THE220

S.E. Woodson

The Question:

Each art form is controlled, not by the artists, but by larger social institutions. In a capitalist society, an artist may believe he or she is using the art form for personal expression, but he or she is actually producing merchandise of a kind acceptable to the society.
- David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson. Film Art:An Introduction. New York: McGraw Hill, 1990. p360.

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)

Changed the course of the modern European theatre more than any other playwright since Ibsen
Early works are influenced by Expressionism, later work by Marx
Grew up in a middle class family

Key to Understanding Brecht

Understanding Realism
Understanding Marx

Key to Understanding Brecht

Understanding Realism
As socially and historically delimited cultural paradigm, realism does three things
- Realism offers a window on the world
- Employs a narrative which has rationally ordered connections between events and characters
- Conceals authorship and disguises the production process of the text

Understanding Marx

Alienation: division b/t the work and the good
Division of labor combined with a technological and industrial process that compartmentalizes production and alienates the worker from the product enfolding workers into the machinery of Capitalist industrialization.
In the world of capital, where everything is for sale, all human relations, lives, and desires become commodified

Brecht

Epic Theatre turns the spectator into an observer, but arouses his capacity for action, forces him to take decisions... the spectator stands outside, studies.
- Bertolt Brecht. Brecht on Theatre. New York: Hill & Wang, 1964. p.37.
Die Verfremdungseffekt (The Alienation Effect) performs this function. It provides a 'bond' of alienation between performer and audience. Its purpose is to "...alienate the social gest underlying every incident - the mimetic and gestural expression of the social relationships prevailing between people.
- Bertolt Brecht. Brecht on Theatre. New York: Hill & Wang, 1964. p.36.

A Comparison between Dramatic and Epic Forms

Dramatic Form

the stage embodies an event
draws spectators into an event
consumes their capacity for action
allows them to have emotions
provides them with experience
the spectator is drawn into the plot
suggestion is used
Humans are unalterable
suspense about the outcome
one scene exists for another
linear development
the world as it is
what man ought to do
his instincts
thinking determines being

Epic Form

the stage narrates an event
makes them an observer, but...
awakens their capacity for action
demands decisions from them
provides them with knowledge
the spectator is placed opposite the plot
arguments are used
Humans are alterable and altering
suspense about the progress
each scene exists for itself
in curves
the world as it becomes
what man is forced to do
his motivations
social being determines thinking

Harold Clurman says

"Brecht's plays are morality plays as surely as anything writteen in the Middle Ages to demonstrate the road to Salvation or to mock the Evil One. There is in Brecht the same basic seriousness, the same need to be clear, popular, real (that is, essential). Those old plays depended a good deal on comedy--often of a primitive kind; so does Brecht, whose shrewd wit and robust humor nearly always assume a rather peasant-like bluntness. Brecht's plays do not attempt to render nuances of personal psychology" they are displays of primary action governed by primary motives."

WHY?

Ultimately, Brecht's theatre is a marxist theatre--he wanted to affect change
The denaturalization of reality
"Brecht's ideas and this theatre are the product of a destroyed world: Germany from 1919 to the [1950s]. In such a world,one has to get down to fundamentals; everything is truly a matter of life and death. In these circumstances, an art such as Brecht's is emblematic, necessary, national." --Clurman

So Consider Galileo

"GALILEO: As a scientist I had an almost unique opportunity. In my day astronomy emerged into the marketplace. At that particular time, had one man put up a fight, it could have had wider repercussions. I have come to believe that I was never in real danger; for some years I was as strong as the authorities, and I surrendered my knowledge to the powers that be, to use it, no not use it, abuse it, as it suits their ends. I have betrayed my profession. Any man who does what I have done must not be tolerated in the ranks of science." --Scene 14

Questions for this play:

How would you graph the structure of this play?

How do the poems at the beginning of each scene contribute to the emotional and intellectual structure of this play?

What does the manifest interest in producing for sale Galileo’s inventions say about the alliance between science and business in the modern world?

What is the central metaphor of this play?

At the end of the play, should we view Galileo as tragic victim, but as heroic nevertheless—or do we see a self-interested scientist who has betrayed his social responsibilities and his responsibilities to his discipline?

Why were Galileo’s “new astronomy” and the invention of the telescope important to the world well beyond their significance to science itself?

What does Galileo suggest about businessmen and their relationship to his new science?

What is the place of God in Galileo’s system? In whom or what does Galileo put his faith?

How does Galileo blame free market business for the state of the world’s ignorance?

For what reason does Galileo say he needs to flatter the powers that be, such as Cosimo de Medici?

Has Galileo really “abolished Heaven” with his theory of the universe? Why or why not?

“Truth is the daughter of Time, not of Authority,” says Galileo. Explain.

Does his decision to recant prove to be the right one? He lives in comfort, he studies motion (the science of mechanics) surreptitiously, and he lives to a ripe old age. His decision was based on “common sense”.

“Even the Church will teach you that to be weak is not human; it is just evil.” .

In what sense is the “new age” “a whore, spattered with blood”?