Born February 10, 1898, in Augsburg, Bavaria, Bertolt Brecht was an influential German poet, playwright, and theater director. In his youth, he studied medicine at Munich University and worked in Augsburg as a medical orderly in a military hospital. After watching his peers eagerly enlist in the army during the outbreak of WWI, he became a radical opponent of war and the nationalistic attitudes associated with it. On August 14, 1956, Brecht died of a heart attack at the age of 58.
Works
In the artistic world, Brecht was already establishing himself as a notable playwright with the debut of A Man’s A Man in 1926. As he grew to be a versatile playwright and lyric poet, Brecht emancipated himself from Expressionistic trends and experimented with new forms. Due to his experimental artistry, and with Hitler taking power, Brecht feared persecution and left Germany in February of 1933. As a German exile, Brecht became deeply interested in Marxism thanks to the dissident Karl Korsch, and though Brecht was never a member of the communist party, both his aesthetic theory and theatrical practice were greatly influenced by Korsch’s Marxist dialectic. Brecht spent a significant time in the United States in Los Angeles andHollywood and returned to Germany after the war in the wake of American McCarthyism.
In 1949, Brecht founded the Berliner Ensemble, which deliberately contrasted with the Weimar theater of Goethe and Schiller. Nearing the end of his life, which he spent in East Berlin, Brecht wrote very few plays, and instead dedicated himself to directing and developing the talents of the next generation of young directors and dramaturges. During these last few years that he wrote some of his most famous poems, such as “Buckow Elegies.”
Influence
By 1936 a wide range of innovative experimentation shaped the parameters of contemporary theater, and one can argue that, among all others (save perhaps Stanislavsky, to whom he paid tribute for developing the systematic account of the actor’s technique), Bertolt Brecht absorbed, and in turn exerted, a greater influence on modern theater than any other individual of his time. Based on his Marxist political convictions, Brecht proposed an alternative direction for theater that fused the functions of instruction and entertainment. As a lifelong Marxist, Brecht worked to combine theory and practice, thus creating “epic theater,” a development that synthesized and extended the experiments and utilized theater as a forum for political ideas as well as the creation of a critical aesthetics of dialectical materialism.
Epic theater proposed that a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with the characters or actions, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage. Brecht employed techniques that would reveal to his audience the constructed similarities between the play and reality, which allowed the audience to recognize social injustice and exploitation rather than to view them complacently through a climactic catharsis of emotion. Among his innovations, Brecht’s methods of rehearsal, worked out in the Berliner Ensemble, established a directing collective. By delegating authority equally to the director, dramaturge, designer, and composer, Brecht’s rehearsal process tested the clarity of the story, and allowed for criticism to refine a play’s strongest and weakest aspects.
Viewing Brecht’s influence on contemporary theater in its entirety, there are considerable advancements linked with problematic consequences. His Marxists views proved to be a stumbling block that prevented his assimilation in the West. His use of formalist techniques in the service of entertainment presented difficulties in the socialist countries where his work was performed. However, his influence is embedded still in many contemporary works, ranging from literature to theater to film. The Brechtian legacy can be traced in the theatrical works of many directors and playwrights. Additionally, Brechtian theories and techniques have exerted considerable sway over certain strands of film theory and cinematic practice, and his influence can be found in various film movements. To this date, Brecht’s plays have surpassed Shakespeare’s in the number of annual performances in Germany, thus cementing his place in history as a prolific and noteworthy writer during a tumultuous period of time.
Scholarship on Brecht
The works and ideas of Bertolt Brecht have inspired generations of scholars in various academic fields. The International Brecht Society serves as a forum for this scholarly community.
Sources
- http://pages.cs.brandeis.edu/~jamesf/goodwoman/brecht_influence.html
- 1995 Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht)
- Oxford Encyclopedia