Bertolt Brecht’s Followers (1,812)

Bertolt Brecht

Born

in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany

February 10, 1898

Died

August 14, 1956

Genre

Fiction, Poetry, Theatre

Influences

Georg Büchner, Karl Korsch, Karl Marx, James Joyce, Ernst Bloch ...more

edit data

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. A seminal theatre practitioner of the twentieth century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble—the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel—with its internationally acclaimed productions.

From his late twenties Brecht remained a life-long committed Marxist who, in developing the combined theory and practice of his 'epic theatre', synthesized and extended the experiments of Piscator and Meyerhold to explore the theatre as a forum for political Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. A seminal theatre practitioner of the twentieth century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble—the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel—with its internationally acclaimed productions.

From his late twenties Brecht remained a life-long committed Marxist who, in developing the combined theory and practice of his 'epic theatre', synthesized and extended the experiments of Piscator and Meyerhold to explore the theatre as a forum for political ideas and the creation of a critical aesthetics of dialectical materialism. Brecht's modernist concern with drama-as-a-medium led to his refinement of the 'epic form' of the drama (which constitutes that medium's rendering of 'autonomization' or the 'non-organic work of art'—related in kind to the strategy of divergent chapters in Joyce's novel Ulysses, to Eisenstein's evolution of a constructivist 'montage' in the cinema, and to Picasso's introduction of cubist 'collage' in the visual arts). In contrast to many other avant-garde approaches, however, Brecht had no desire to destroy art as an institution; rather, he hoped to 're-function' the apparatus of theatrical production to a new social use. In this regard he was a vital participant in the aesthetic debates of his era—particularly over the 'high art/popular culture' dichotomy—vying with the likes of Adorno, Lukács, Bloch, and developing a close friendship with Benjamin. Brechtian theatre articulated popular themes and forms with avant-garde formal experimentation to create a modernist realism that stood in sharp contrast both to its psychological and socialist varieties. "Brecht's work is the most important and original in European drama since Ibsen and Strindberg," Raymond Williams argues, while Peter Bürger insists that he is "the most important materialist writer of our time."

As Jameson among others has stressed, "Brecht is also ‘Brecht’"—collective and collaborative working methods were inherent to his approach. This 'Brecht' was a collective subject that "certainly seemed to have a distinctive style (the one we now call 'Brechtian') but was no longer personal in the bourgeois or individualistic sense." During the course of his career, Brecht sustained many long-lasting creative relationships with other writers, composers, scenographers, directors, dramaturgs and actors; the list includes: Elisabeth Hauptmann, Margarete Steffin, Ruth Berlau, Slatan Dudow, Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Paul Dessau, Caspar Neher, Teo Otto, Karl von Appen, Ernst Busch, Lotte Lenya, Peter Lorre, Therese Giehse, Angelika Hurwicz, and Helene Weigel herself. This is "theatre as collective experiment [...] as something radically different from theatre as expression or as experience."

There are few areas of modern theatrical culture that have not felt the impact or influence of Brecht's ideas and practices; dramatists and directors in whom one may trace a clear Brechtian legacy include: Dario Fo, Augusto Boal, Joan Littlewood, Peter Brook, Peter Weiss, Heiner Müller, Pina Bausch, Tony Kushner and Caryl Churchill. In addition to the theatre, Brechtian theories and techniques have exerted considerable sway over certain strands of film theory and cinematic practice; Brecht's influence may be detected in the films of Joseph Losey, Jean-Luc Godard, Lindsay Anderson, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Nagisa Oshima, Ritwik Ghatak, Lars von Trier, Jan Bucquoy and Hal Hartley.

During the war years, Brecht became a prominent writer of the Exilliteratur. He expressed his opposition to the National Socialist and Fascist movements in his most famous plays. ...more

Combine Editions
Bertolt Brecht’s books

Average rating: 3.74 · 99,029 ratings · 4,643 reviews · 1,462 distinct works • Similar authors

	Mother Courage and Her Children 3.62 avg rating — 21,403 ratings — published 1941 — 204 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Galileo by Bertolt Brecht, Eric Bentley, Charles Laughton (Translator) 3.66 avg rating — 17,294 ratings — published 1943 — 95 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill (Music), John Willett (Editor) 3.88 avg rating — 13,743 ratings — published 1928 — 116 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Good Woman of Setzuan 3.67 avg rating — 12,278 ratings — published 1943 — 95 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht, Eric Bentley 3.74 avg rating — 8,717 ratings — published 1945 — 131 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 3.82 avg rating — 2,428 ratings — published 1941 — 63 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Stories of Mr. Keuner 3.88 avg rating — 1,635 ratings — published 1958 — 52 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Brecht on Theatre by Bertolt Brecht, John Willett (Translator), Steve Giles (Editor) 4.18 avg rating — 1,316 ratings — published 1964 — 34 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fear and Misery of the Third Reich by Bertolt Brecht, John Willett (Translator), Tom Kuhn (Editor) 4.06 avg rating — 1,349 ratings — published 1938 — 46 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Threepenny Novel by Bertolt Brecht, Christopher Isherwood (Translator), Desmond I. Vesey (Translator) 3.79 avg rating — 1,118 ratings — published 1934 — 92 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Bertolt Brecht…

Series by Bertolt Brecht

Brecht Collected Plays (8 books)
by

Bertolt Brecht,

Ellen Rank (Translator),

Hugh Rank (Translator),

James Stern (Translator),

Tania Stern (Translator),

W.H. Auden (Translator),

William Rowlinson (Translator),

John Willett (Editor)

3.93 avg rating — 412 ratings

Günlükler (2 books)
by

Bertolt Brecht,

İlke Gökdemir (Translator)

4.38 avg rating — 8 ratings

Quotes by Bertolt Brecht (?)

“Art is not a mirror held up to reality
but a hammer with which to shape it.”
― Bertolt Brecht

1877 likes

“Hungry man, reach for the book: it is a weapon.”
― Bertolt Brecht

tags: book, hunger, weapon

1530 likes

“The human race tends to remember the abuses to which it has been subjected rather than the endearments. What's left of kisses? Wounds, however, leave scars.”
― Bertolt Brecht

tags: abuse, history, humanity, kiss, life, mankind, scars, wounds

834 likes

See all Bertolt Brecht's quotes »

Polls

December 2021 Short Story/Novella Poll

A Christmas Tree by Charles Dickens 44 pages, 1850

64 votes, 28.7%

A Letter from Santa Claus by Mark Twain, 9 pages, 1875

53 votes, 23.8%

The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark, 103 pages, 1970

33 votes, 14.8%

The Lost Boy by Thomas Wolfe, 95 pages, 1937

21 votes, 9.4%

The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht, 136 pages, 1945

18 votes, 8.1%

The Destructors by Graham Greene, 40 pages, 1928

18 votes, 8.1%

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen, 82 pages. 1890

16 votes, 7.2%

223 total votes

comments and details

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Seasonal Read...: German Task	37	403	Aug 28, 2009 12:47PM
Chicks On Lit: Novels in Italy	42	153	Jun 24, 2011 03:56PM
Books Stephen Kin...: Bertolt Brecht	1	13	Dec 14, 2011 06:56PM
Indian Readers: Dely's books 2011	182	110	Dec 29, 2011 11:00AM
The Seasonal Read...: 30.6 Delicious Dee's task:Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction	130	121	Apr 11, 2012 10:45PM
The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2012: Completed Tasks -DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2302	768	Jun 01, 2012 05:02AM
Reading with Style: Summer 2012 20.7 - A Poet's Non-Poetry	30	65	Jul 13, 2012 09:50PM
Reading with Style: Summer 2012 Rws Completed Tasks	1022	189	Sep 01, 2012 05:01AM

More…