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Fuegi, John, et al. (ed.) / Brecht in Asia and Africa = Brecht in Asien und Afrika
(1989)
Kruger, Loren
Brechts Theorie des Theaters, pp. 190-197
Page 196
Brecht in Asia and Africa
NOTES
1. Roland Barthes, "Les tfches de la critique brechtienne", Essais
critiques. Pads,
1980, p. 86.
2. Bertolt Brecht, Gesammelte Werke. Frankfurt, 1967, XVI, 640. Subsequent
references to GW
3. Klaus-Detlef Muller, "Der Philosoph auf dem Theater", Brechts
Theorie des
Theaters, Frankfurt, 1986, p. 144.
4. For an authoritative discussion of the question of the classical heritage
in the
GDR, see the essays under the rubric of "Die Klassik-Debatte",
in Wer war
Brecht? Wandlung und Entwicklung der Ansichten uber Brecht im Spiegel
von
Sinn und Form. Ed. Werner Mittenzwei. Berlin, 1977; for a critique of
this
essentially Lukdcsian position in the light of the ambivalent value of
the
Enlightenment in the historical context of Germany after Nazism, see
Heiner
Muller, "Brief', in the same volume.
5. For a systematic account of Brecht's theoretical debt to Korsch and for
his
critique of the objectivist reflection theory of culture promulgated
by Lenin
from the point of view of a critical defence of eingreifendes Denken
(grounded
in the Theses on Feuerbach) see Heinz Br0ggemann, Literarische Technik
und soziale Revolution. Rowohlt, 1973, esp. Chs. 5&6. Those who base
a
dismissal of Korsch's influence on Brecht on the basis of reading
Bruggemann, as does Jan Knopf in his essay on Verfremdung in the volume
under discussion (pp. 99-101 and notes), might consult Brecht's comments
on the subject (GW, 20) as well as his letters to Korsch (Alternative,
no. 105,
1975).
6. For a historical analysis of this debate on the relative merits of radical
theatrical
innovation and traditional realist forms (which resurfaced very quickly
in the
GDR) in its late Weimar context, see Helga Gallas, Marxistische Literaturtheode.
Darmstadt, 1971.
7. See Werner Mittenzwei, "Der Realismus-Streit uber Brechr, in Wer
war Brecht?,
pp. 7-114. Significantly, Mittenzwei's chief contribution to Brechts
Theorie des
Theaters, "Die Spur der Lehrstucktheorie", opens by defending
Brecht's
Lehrstuck against the orthodox Marxist-Leninist dismissal, using Rainer
Steinweg's seminal account of the Lehrstuck as a radical productive departure
from the theory and practice of theatre for contemplation and consumption
(which would include some of Brecht's earlier work such as the
Dreigroschenoper). What appears as an acknowledgement of the Lehrst0ck's
actual value beyond the orthodox category of the classical heritage,
however,
turns into an attack that shifts the blame for Linksabweichung from Brecht
to
those West German critics - Steinweg, Hildegard Brenner and contributors
to
Alternative - who endorse the Lehrstuck as a militant separatist practice,
so as
to "save" activist material such as Die Mutter as works in
the repertoire of
exemplary showpieces and, by separating them from their activist context
-
theatre without spectators building active EinverstAndnis - to incorporate
the
theory as an endorsement of an aesthetics of essentially passive assent
to
these exemplars.
8. John Willetrs detailed account of Brecht's long and sometimes circuitous
march
in "The Changing Role of Politics," Brecht in Context. London,
1983, pp. 178-
201, provides a valuable corrective to Hecht's reading by stressing the
contradictory character of Brechrs encounter with Marxism and Marxists
while
continuing rightly to insist that Brechrs work cannot be fully understood
outside the context of his commitment.
9. "Manifest der kommunistischen Partei", Marx, Engels: Werke (hereafter,
MEW).
Berlin, 1983, 462-93, esp. 463-68.
10. Karl Korsch, Marxism and Philosophy. Leipzig, 1928, p. 49.
196
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