A terrifying series of short poems by one of the world’s leading playwrights, set to images of World War II In this singular book written during World War Two, Bertolt Brecht presents a devastating visual and lyrical attack on war under modern capitalism. He takes photographs from newspapers and popular magazines, and adds short lapidary verses to each in a unique attempt to understand the truth of war using mass media. Pictures of catastrophic bombings, propaganda portraits of leading Nazis, scenes of unbearable tragedy on the battlefield — all these images contribute to an anthology of horror, from which Brecht’s perceptions are distilled in poems that are razor-sharp, angry and direct. The result is an outstanding literary memorial to World War Two and one of the most spontaneous, revealing and moving of Brecht’s works.
Bertolt Brecht has been perceived as an ardent proponent of social change, an avid advocate of a just world that he defined in terms of socialism, and an adamant foe of capitalism for whose demise he hoped. He is justly regarded as one of the great innovators of theater theory and practice in the 20th century, and his influence has extended to Latin America and Asia. This reference book surveys Brecht's enormous contribution to world drama. Chapters by expert contributors assess his dramatic innovations, his poetry and prose, and topics of special interest to Brecht studies. With the centennial of his birth approaching in 1998, Bertolt Brecht's controversial reception in general and in the United States in particular, is coming into clearer focus. One of the great dramatists of the 20th century, Brecht has been viewed as an ardent proponent of social change, an avid advocate of a just world that he defined in terms of socialism, and an adamant foe of capitalism for whose demise he hoped. With the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the political and economic milieu of Europe has changed drastically, and socialist writers are now being studied from a fresh perspective. This volume surveys and assesses Brecht's enormous contribution to the arts. Chapters by expert contributors explore his innovative dramatic theory and theatrical practice. Though best known for his contribution to the stage, Brecht also wrote poetry and prose fiction, and his poems and prose are examined in this work. Brecht's influence is also considered, and chapters examine topics of special interest, such as Brecht and film, the role of music in his works, feminist and Marxist approaches to his writings, the problem of translating Brecht into English, and the reception and appropriation of his plays and dramatic theory in various countries. While the chapters are historical in focus, the contributors also demonstrate the continuing relevance of Brecht in general and the Brechtian theater in particular in the 1990s.
Essays on the Wilhelm Meister novels, Faust, Goethe's early plays, Schiller's Räuber and on Goethe's thought in relation to current debates on cosmopolitanism and postcoloniality. The Goethe Yearbook, first published in 1982, is a publication of the Goethe Society of North America and is dedicated to North American Goethe Scholarship. It aims above all to encourage and publish original English-language contributions to the understanding of Goethe and other authors of the Goethezeit, while also welcoming contributions from scholars around the world. This year's volume features a cluster of exceptional essays thatshed new light on Goethe's Wilhelm Meister novels and Faust, as well as fascinating articles on the early play Das Jahrmarktsfest zu Plundersweilen and the poem "Ilmenau," Schiller's Die Räuber, and anessay that places Goethe's thought in relation to current debates about cosmopolitanism and postcoloniality. Engaging reviews of recent publications in Goethe studies round out the volume. Contributors include Eric Denton, Matt Erlin, Jaimey Fisher, Ingrid Rieger, Rainer Kawa, David Barry, Stephanie Dawson, and John Pizer. Simon J. Richter is Professor of German at the University of Pennsylvania. Book review editor Martha B. Helfer is Professor of German at Rutgers University.
A fascinating account of the friendship between two of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century Germany in the mid 1920s, a place and time of looming turmoil, brought together Walter Benjamin—acclaimed critic and extraordinary literary theorist—and Bertolt Brecht, one of the twentieth century’s most influential playwrights. It was a friendship that would shape their writing for the rest of their lives. In this groundbreaking work, Erdmut Wizisla explores what this relationship meant for them personally and professionally, as well as the effect it had on those around them. From the first meeting between Benjamin and Brecht to their experiences in exile, these eventful lives are illuminated by personal correspondence, journal entries and private miscellany—including previously unpublished materials—detailing the friends’ electric discussions of their collaboration. Wizisla delves into the archives of other luminaries in the distinguished constellation of writers and artists in Weimar Germany, which included Margarete Steffin, Theodor Adorno, Ernst Bloch and Hannah Arendt. Wizisla’s account of this friendship opens a window on nearly two decades of European intellectual life.
Annual volume with contributions on writers and artists whose work intersects with Brecht's from three thematic perspectives: Brecht in a global age, women and Brecht, and Brecht's learning plays.
The leading scholarly publication on Brecht; volume 43 contains a wealth of articles on diverse topics and a reconstruction of the two-chorus version of The Exception and the Rule. Published for the International Brecht Society by Camden House, the Brecht Yearbook is the central scholarly forum for discussion of Brecht's life and work and of topics of interest to him, especially the politics of literature and theater in a global context. It encourages a wide variety of perspectives and approaches and, like Brecht, is committed to the use value of literature, theater, and theory. Volume 43 opens with a reconstruction of Brecht's two-chorus version of The Exception and the Rule (Reiner Steinweg) and continues with a selection of Helmut Heißenbüttel's reviews of Brecht's work. Four articles (by Christine Künzel, Carsten Mindt, Judith Niehaus, and Sebastian Schuller) address Brechtian aspects of Gisela Elsner's novels. The next two essays (by Hunter Bivens and Friedemann Weidauer) revisit Brecht's reflections on affect and empathy. Also included are papers from the 2016IBS "Recycling Brecht" Symposium: on Brecht's recycling of Lenin in his "neue Dramatik" (Joseph Dial), on Paul Celan as a reconfiguration of Brecht (Paul Peters), on Brecht's adaptation of Shakespeare's Coriolanus (MartinRevermann), and on Hilary Mantel's Brechtian reconfiguration of Thomas Cromwell (Markus Wessendorf). The volume features Richard Schröder's farewell lecture on Brecht's Life of Galileo and an essay by Ulrich Plass on BerndStegemann's allegedly Brechtian reclamation of critical realism. It concludes with Zhang Wei's interview with the Chinese dramaturg, playwright, and Brecht translator Li Jianming. Editor Markus Wessendorf is a Professorin the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa in Honolulu.
