Academic literature on the topic 'Criticism and interpretationbrecht, bertolt , 1898-1956'

The history of Bertolt Brecht’s play Leben des Galilei extends through the writing of its three versions during 1938 to 1955—a period of two decades that also encompassed the entirety of the Second World War. The period also covers the atom bomb from its development to America’s use of the bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the beginning of the Cold War, which included the sustained threat that nuclear weapons might be used any day. This thesis traces, and offers interpretations of, changes in Brecht’s Leben des Galilei from its inception in 1938–1939—when the protagonist, a scientist, is portrayed in a positive light—through the play’s American version in 1947, where it bitterly accuses science and scientists of having betrayed society and humanity, and finally to its last version in 1955, where the protagonist struggles to prevent the normalization—the familiarization—of the threat of nuclear warfare.

Next to the writing of the Leben des Galilei, the thesis also focuses on the main critical readings of the play. A large fraction of the critical readings, but not all of them, interpret the play either as a judgment of science or as an invitation to pass judgment on science.

The thesis compares Leben des Galilei with three different groups of other texts. The first comparison is with two other plays that also address the problem of science in the age of nuclear weapons, and the second comparison is with other work of Brecht himself. The first comparison leads to the observation that the muted note of optimism in the final version of Leben des Galilei is exceptional, and the second comparison to the apparently unrelated observation that it was uncharacteristic of Brecht to make explicit a certain literary allusion in Leben des Galilei. The two observations converge to a possible common explanation from a comparison with a still third group of texts, a cycle of Native American myths which appear in the oral traditions of various Native American tribes spread throughout the New World.

Finally, the thesis addresses the question of why a modern-day literary text, addressing the essentially modern problem of nuclear warfare, and addressing that problem using the essentially modern techniques of Brechtian theatre, might have structures parallel to the structures of primitive mythology.

Thesis (MDram (Drama))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.
This study focuses on Bertolt Brecht`s use of music in his epic theatre. After looking at his objectives against the background of his times, certain key aspects of his dramatic theory and practice in general are discussed e.g. its epic nature, Verfremdung, Gestus and his social engagement. This is important for an understanding of his functional use of music as an important element in his productions. Music as a sign system in drama is discussed with special reference to the genres in which music plays an essential role, viz. opera, in particular Wagner`s Gesamtkunstwerk and, most importantly, cabaret. The focus is on Brecht`s reaction against and point of connection with, each of these genres. The second part of the study focuses on the role of music in the practice of Brecht`s theatre. Naturally the specific composers with whom Brecht worked and specific productions are discussed. The relevant productions discussed are Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (1930), Die Dreigroshenoper (1931) and Mutter Courage und Ihre Kinder (1939). Brecht worked against a background of social, political and economic upheaval. His art aimed at making people aware of unjustified social circumstances and inspiring them to engage in the task of changing these circumstances. For him this entailed communicating in a fresh way with words which had lost their meaning because of ideological abuse. For this purpose he made use of music in a very specific way. He tried – not always successfully – to avoid using music as an ornamental narcotic. This implied that music was always meant to serve the intention of the text, the Gestus. Music in Brecht`s theatre was dramatic not incidental, functional not ornamental, and music not as a means of escapism, but as an inspiration. The music, like all the other elements in his theatre, had to stimulate critical thinking and had to be of social use in order for it to be considered functional. The “great struggle for supremacy between music, text and production”, to which Brecht so often referred, complicated his goal of functionality and it was no easy task to marry his dialectical ideas. This caused for certain discrepancies between his theory and practice and I will take that into consideration in this study.

M.A. (English)
The aim of this d i s s e r t a t i on is to identify the influence of Bertolt Bretht on Fugard's life and work in South African theatre. As Fugard himself is not German-speaking, and his experience of Brecht is perforce through translations of Brecht into English, this is not a comparative study bet veeri the dramatists. It merely uses Fugard's own statements about his reading of Brecht in English at various points in his career, from the 1950s to the present, to show this particular aspect of his own development as a dramatist. The standard works on Fugard - Athol Fugard, Stephen Gray (ed.) (Johannesburg: McGraw-Hill, 1982), Dennis Walder, Athol Fugard (London: Macmillan, 1984) and Russell Vandenbroucke, Truths the Hand can Touch (Johannesburg: Donker, 1986) - refer only glancingly to this possibility. The introduction establishes the many references Fugard has made to Brecht in his writing - which includes not only his plays, but his novel, filmscripts, notebooks, letters and interviews and interprets how Fugard perceives various Brechtian theatre principles, such as the use of the alienation effect, the epic nature of drama and the function of theatre in the community. In the following chapters Fugard's vorks are examined, in order to show how Brecht has been of use to him at various key points in his career. This is done chronologically, so that a larger picture of the influence on Fugard's development as a dramatist and his changing use of Brecht as a source may be seen. The conclusion of this dissertation takes the findings of the previous chapters and assesses the nature of the BrechtFugard link, taking into account the different aspects and levels. This is briefly compared to the findings of the latest critical work to have corne out in which Fugard features - Martin Orkin, Drama and the South African State (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1991) - in an attempt to show how using the methodology of a source and influence study like this is of value in coming to a deeper understanding of the dramaturgy of a writer like Fugard...