Staging History : Brecht's Social Concepts of Ideology

by Oesmann, Astrid

• ISBN13: 9780791463857
• ISBN10: 0791463850
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-08-30
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

"Staging History analyzes the commitment to social change present in the theatrical and theoretical writings of Bertolt Brecht's. Challenging previous notions, Astird Oesmann argues that Brecht's work was less dependent on Marxist ideology than is often assumed and that his work should be seen as a coherent whole. Brecht used the stage to release political ideas into experimental spaces in which actors and spectators could explore the relationships between abstract thought and concrete social life. Oesmann places Brecht within the context of the major leftist theorists of the twentieth century, particularly Adorno, Benjamin, and LukC cs, focusing on their discussions of realism, aesthetics, natural history, and mimesis. Oesmann elaborates upon the vision of a "counter-public sphere" in a number of Brecht's theoretical texts and plays--"especially "The Three Penny Trial and Fear and Misery of the Third Reich--" that present the emergence of such a sphere in the face of fascism. By exploring Brecht's theoretical writings, selected plays, and recently published theatrical fragments, Oesmann reveals unpredictable constructions of history and surprising distinctions among various political ideologies, while also proving that Brecht remains vitally relevant to a "post-communist" world.

Author Biography

Astrid Oesmann is Associate Professor of German and Comparative Literature at The University of Iowa

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(6)
1 Brecht and Theory	7	(40)
Realism and Reversed Perception	10	(7)
Art as the Speaker of History	17	(9)
Natural History	26	(10)
Mimetic Activities	36	(11)
2 Prehistories	47	(42)
The Theatrical Destruction of Subjectivity	48	(20)
The Unorganized Material	68	(9)
Instincts and Transformations	77	(12)
3 Man Between Material and Social Order	89	(40)
Material Against Identity: Mann ist Mann	92	(4)
Brecht's Concept of the Public Sphere	96	(7)
The Captured Material (Exploitation/Imploitation)	103	(11)
Political Distinctions	114	(15)
4 Revolution: Change and Persistence	129	(44)
The Teaching Plays: Brecht's Theatre of Poverty	129	(6)
Social Space and Human Standing	135	(9)
Einverständnis Consent in Crisis	144	(7)
Subject Bound/Thought Unbound	151	(10)
Defacement and Death	161	(12)
5 Brecht's Archaeology of Knowledge	173	(34)
The Genealogy of Terror	175	(11)
Memory and Morality	186	(4)
Body in Time: Haltung	190	(7)
Thought in Time: Lehre	197	(10)
Notes	207	(18)
Index	225