Bertolt Brecht: Theatre as Revolution

1. GE 212: Bertolt Brecht – Theatre as Revolution

2. Bertolt Brecht: ‘History was his private Life’, (Fredric Jameson, Brecht and Method) • 10.2.1898 - born in Augsburg • 1918 - Studies briefly Munich, meets Frank Wedekind and works in theatre of Karl Valentin • theatre critic for‘Volkswille’ (organ of USPD) • From 1921 in Berlin • 1922 Trommeln in der Nacht • From 1926 friendship with Walter Benjamin, Mann ist Mann,Hauspostille • 1927-29 – studies Marx with Fritz Sternberg and Karl Korsch • 1927-29Aufstieg und Fall der StadtMahagonny(1930, Leipzig) • 1928 Dreigroschenoper(Berlin) • 1929-31 Lehrstücke • 1929-31 Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe (1959, Hamburg) • 1938-9 Leben des Galilei(1943, Zurich) • 1939 Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (1941 Zurich), SvendborgerGedichte • 1949-53 KleinesOrganonfür das Theater • 14 August 1956 Brecht dies in East Berlin • 28 July 1914 – 11 Nov 1918: WWI • Feb/Oct 1917: Russian Revolution • 1918 – 1919: Revolution in Germany, Räterepublik in Munich, Spartakus-uprising in Berlin, both suppressed violently • 1920: Kapp Putsch against Weimar Republic in Munich • 1921-22: murder of Matthias Erzberger and Walter Rathenau by far right ‘Organisation Consul’ • 1923: Hitler-Putsch against Weimar Republic in Munich • 1929: Wall Street Crash • 1930-33: minority governments & governance by ‘emergency decrees’, increasing crisis • Feb 1933 NSDAP’s becomes largest party, Hitler made Reichskanzler, Brecht leaves Germany for Denmark • 27/28 Feb: arson attack on Reichstag • 28 Feb: Emergency decree ‘ZumSchutz von Volk und Staat’ – suspension of citizen’s rights • 23/24 March 1933: ‘Enabling Law’ • 10 May 1933: Brecht’s books burned publically

3. The terms of the Versailles Treaty

4. Political Parties in the Weimar Republic (left to right)

5. The Weimar Republic – a democracy without democrats? ‘Sie tragen die Buchstaben der Firma, aber wer trägt den Geist?’, Th.Th.Heine, Simplicissimus, March 1927 Weimar Constitution: approved 11 Aug 1919 for: 262 deputies (SPD, Zentrum, DDP) against: 75 (DNVP, DVP, USPD)

6. Economic instability 1919-24 • National insolvency (war bonds, based on victory! not redeemed) • revolutions of 1918/19 discouraged investment • External national debt = 132 Billion marks = 3 x national income • Reparations payments = 1/3 of national expenditure 1921-22 • higher income groups decline to pay income tax • June 1921: collapse of currency & economy, printing money, hyperinflation • By end of 1923: 4.97 x 10 to power of 20 worth of Reichsmarks in circulation, incl. banknotes ‚worth’ 20-billion Marks • Prices on av. 1.26 trillion higher than 1913! • Industrial production = 50% of 1913 level

7. Political Instability – political asssassinations • Jan. 1919 Rosa Luxemburg & Karl Liebknecht (anti-war activists, founders of KPD, Dec 1919) • Feb. 1921 Kurt Eisner, President of independent socialist republic of Bavaria (Nov 1918 - Feb 1918) • Aug. 1921 Matthias Erzberger, Zentrum politician, signatory of hated Versailles treaty • June 1921 Walther Rathenau Jewish financier, economist, Foreign Minister of Republic. • Bias in the judiciary: • For 314 assassinations right-wingers received 31 years in prison • For 13 assassinations by left-wingers 8 were executed

8. 1924-1929: The (relatively) stable middle period (‘Stabilisierungsphase’) • Taylorism, The Principles of Scientific Management, ‘productivity science’ • Fordism (Henry Ford, Mein Leben und Werk, publ. Germany 1923 ‘Die Bibel der Stabiliserungsphase‘ • 1923: German industrial production lower than at founding of republic in 1919 • 1924 -1929: Industrial production rises by 40%, wages by 50%, strikes drop by 500%. • 1928: Germany # 2 in world industrial production league table. • 1924 - 1929: 40% of total investment capital in German industry from USA. 80% of US capital investment from private sources • 24 Oct 1929: Wall Street Crash (‘black Friday’)

9. 24 Oct 1929: Wall Street Crash (‘black Friday’) 1929-1932 Steep rise in suicide rate: UK 85 per mill USA 133 France 155 Germany 260 Unemployment rises to 6,000,000 by 1932 Bürgertum loses savings Kleinbürgertum increasingly radicalised, turns to right-wing extremist parties

10. Election Results Weimar Republic

11. ‘The Age of Extremes’ (Eric Hobsbawm):Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (Paris, 1937)

12. Weimar culture: The age of Massenkultur, modernity and consumerism • “The Weimar Republic constitutes the high water mark of classical modernity ... . In it the features in which we live today arose; from it followed the breakthrough of modern social policy, technology, science the humanities, and modern culture, music, architecture and literature. In a mere fourteen years nearly all the possibilities of modern existence were played out. At the same time this classical modernity faced its crisis years. Its unfolding was accompanied by its being called into question, by reversals and eventual disaster.” • DetlevPeukert, “The Weimar Republic -- Old and New Perspectives”, History Today, 6/2/1988. • book clubs • the Bauhaus movement • popular cinema • painting • the Arbeiterkulturbewegung • popular music • radio • sport (e.g. boxing, football, cycling) • Invention of Film and Radio • Impressionism, Expressionism, NeueSachlichkeit

13. Modernity, Rationalism, Modernism • Modern culture (mass culture) • Rational & efficient methods of organisation • Urbanisation • Western culture • Mass consumption • Meritocracy • Materialism • Utilitarianism • Cosmopolitanism ( = globalisation today?) • Fordism, Taylorism – rationalised production

14. Ständegesellschaft & Klassengesellschaft • Based on (personal) relationships to (absolute) power • ‘Ständische’ (estate) identity and pride • Agricultural economy, artisan labour • Little to no social mobility • Based on relation to means of production (i.e. relation between people is economic) • Class based identity & values (but not necessarily class consciousness) • Industrial economy (division of labour, rationalisation, mechanisation) • Increased social mobility

15. Ständegesellschaft vs. Klassengesellschaft

16. Crisis of bourgeois theatre • Individual vs. social/political/economic developments in mass society • Modern political and social conflicts no longer representable • Socio-political conflicts transcend individual subject and subjectivity

17. Naturalist Theatre • Anton Chekhov (Russia, 1860-1904) • Henrik Ibsen (Norway, 1828-1906) • August Strindberg (Sweden, 1848-1912) • Gerhart Hauptmann (Germany, 1862-1946) Influenced by naturalist novel (esp. Emile Zola, France, 1840-1902) scientific, experimental, observation, documentation (esp. psychology)

18. First Stockholm production of Strindberg’s 1988 play Miss Julie, 1906

19. Erwin Piscator, Stage for Ernst Toller’s Hoppla, wir leben, 1927

20. Brecht, Dreigroschenoper

21. Inside of theatre around 1900

22. The ‘revolutionary’ character of Brecht’s early plays • ‘Ein Theater, das ernsthaft den Versuch unternimmt, eines der neueren Stücke aufzuführen, nimmt das Risiko einer totalen Umstellung auf sich. […] Die totale Umstellung des Theaters darf natürlich nicht einer artistischen Laune folgen, sie muss einfach der totalen geistigen Umstellung unserer Zeit entsprechen.’ • ‘Betrachtungen über die Schwierigkeiten des epischen Theaters’, GS 15, 131-32’

23. Interior Characters are determined by their social background and dominated by their past Focuses on individuals Actor ‘becomes’ character: complete identification Illusionistic Plot (what?) Open stage, exterior Characters are changeable Focuses on political questions Actor ‘presents’ character Anti-Illusionistic (‘alienation effect’, breaking of identification) Breaks with illusion Process (how?) Naturalism vs. Brecht’s stage

24. Brecht’s theatre: new forms of social relations • 1. Greek Tragedy • 2. Renaissance (Shakespeare) • 3. Naturalist Drama • 4. Expressionist Drama • 5. Brecht’s epic theatre • 1. Hero in conflict with fate • 2. Individuals face each other • 3. Hero in conflict with social environment (Milieu - milieu as fate) • 4. Humans as mass, individual = mankind • 5. characters represent social conflicts

25. What is ‘episch’? • From Greek ‘epos’ • Narrates • Episodic (every episode for itself) • Montage (vertical & horizontal) • Non-Aristotelian (from Aristotle’s Poetics = no catharsis) • Separation of elements

26. Brecht’s Epic Theatre • Verfremdungseffekte (‘De-Familiarisation’) • Montage principle • Self-reflexivity = Self-commenting • No ‘fourth wall’ • The ‘Showing of showing’ • Didactic purpose

27. Epic Theatre • Avoids empathy, avoids identification with characters on stage • Analysis of emotions • Audience is not ‘immersed’ in events on stage • Audience judges characters on stage • Audience judges situation on stage • ‘Glotzt nicht so romantisch!’

28. The provenance of Brecht’s epic theatre • Wagner’s concept of Gesamtkunstwerk • Naturalist theatre’s ‘epic’ (i.e. ‘narrative’ = non-dramatic element) • Soviet revolutionary theatre (Vsevolod Meyerhold) – anti-Stanislawski • Chinese & Japanese theatre (masks, abstraction from characters & emotions)

29. Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk • Arises out of protest against commercialisation and modernisation, as well as out of failure of March revolution 1848: ‘Das ist die Kunst, wie sie jetzt die ganze zivilisierte Welt erfüllt! Ihr wirkliches Wesen ist die Industrie, ihr moralischer Zweck der Gelderewerb, ihr ästhetisches Vorgeben die Unterhaltung der Gelangweilten.’ (‘Die Kunst und die Revolution’, 1848) • Revolutionises stage by ‘hiding’ orchestra – orchestra pit • creates an ‘inner space’ that integgrates stage and audience into totality • Protest: art as ‘counter-world’ to bad world outside theatre • Wagnerian audience: unified collective & utopian community • Wagner’s music: Leitmotifs commenting on action on stage (precursor to V-Effect • Wagner’s art was supposed to redeem man from ‘gesellschaftlichen Nützlichkeitsmenschen’

30. Cubism (Braque, Violin and Candlestick, 1910) & classical Chinese Painting

31. ‘Wie man weiss, verwenden die Chinesen nicht die Kunst der Perspektive, sie lieben es nicht, alles von einem einzigen Blickpunkt aus zu betrachten.’ (Brecht, GS, 18, 278f.)

32. Different ‘Brechts’ • Brecht as dramatic innovator • Brecht as socialist writer • Brecht as embodyig complexities and contradictions of political writing

33. Stylistic devices of Brecht’s theatre • PARODY: keeping an existing cultural form, but putting a different content into it. • E.gDie Dreigroschenoperis an opera, but one peopled by beggars, gangsters & prostitutes. • Heilige Johanna: has businessmen talking in classical metre & presented as if in a classical tragedy. • TRAVESTY (= disguise) a less subtle, more blatant technique: • Involves retaining an existing content, but delivering it in a new or different form: • E.g: 1. the closing credits’ music at the end of Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine. This is the Ramones’ upbeat punky version of Wonderful world, originally recorded by Louis Armstrong. Why is that travesty, and what’s the effect in the context of the film and in relation to its subject matter (crime, racism and the gun-culture in the USA) 2. The Sex Pistols’ punk version of God Save the Queen. • PARABLE: A narrative form with a simple moral message: • “Narration by analogy. A didactic narrative conveying a moral truth or message in another guise.” M. H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms, London, 1988. Aim: to simplify complex abstract processes in a concrete manner. • ALLEGORY: “A narrative in which the agents and action, and sometimes the setting as well, are contrived so as to make coherent sense on the ‘literal’, or primary level of significance, and also to signify a second, corresponding order of agents, concepts and events”. M. H. Abrams, ibid.