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Berthold Brecht and Epic Theatre |
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht
Born: February 10, 1898
Died: August 14, 1956
Eugen
Berthold Friedrich Brecht’s Quote
Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.
It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk.
No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.
Rene Descarte (1596-1650)
French
philosopher, mathematician and physicist. His Quote is given below-
Cogito, ergo sum (Latin)
I think, therefore I am
I am thinking, therefore I exist
Foundational
statement of Western philosophy
Marxism
Karl Marx (1818-1883): German
philosopher
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895): German
sociologist
- The Communist Manifesto 1848
- Theories of Surplus Value, 3 volumes, 1862
- Capital, Volume I (Das Capital), 1867
- Capital, Volume II [edited and posthumously published by Engels], 1885
- Capital, Volume III [edited posthumously published by Engels], 1894
Dialectics
- Everything is transient and finite, existing in the medium of time (this idea is not accepted by some dialecticians).
- Everything is made out of opposing forces/opposing sides (contradictions).
- Gradual changes lead to turning points, where one force overcomes the other (quantitative change leads to qualitative change).
- Change moves in spirals, not circles (day and night). (Sometimes referred to as "negation of the negation")
Hegel
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher and an important figure of German idealism.
- He achieved wide recognition in his day and—while primarily influential within the continental tradition of philosophy
Hegelian Dialectics: Dialectical Idealism
- Idealism:
a philosophical theory; the ultimate nature of reality is based on mind or
ideas
- Abstract-Negative-Concrete
- Each development process passes through three stages: thesis, antithesis and synthesis
- A thesis (an intellectual proposition) gives rise to its reaction, an antithesis (negative of the thesis), which contradicts or negates the thesis,
- Each stage refutes the one before, the last reunites in itself the main features of first two
- The tension between the two is resolved by means of a synthesis
- It reconciles the common truths of the thesis and the antithesis, and forms a new proposition
Marxist Dialectics: Dialectical
Materialism
- Materialism is a basically empirical philosophy (based on observation and experiment). It argues that all phenomena originate from a physical cause and can be understood and explained through natural science
- Marx transformed Hegel’s idealistic understanding to dialectics (as clash of ideas) into a materialist one. [He "put Hegel's dialectics back on its feet"]
- He argued that "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”
Marxist Model of Society
- Base (economic infrastructure): material means of production, distribution and exchange
- Superstructure:
the cultural world of ideas, art, religion, law, etc
- The superstructure is determined by the economic infrastructure
- Communism:
a classless and stateless society.
- In capitalist society, an economic minority (the bourgeoisie) dominate and exploit the working class (proletariat) majority.
Historification
- Theatre should not treat contemporary subject in lifelike manner
- Rather, the theatre should ‘make strange’
- Emphasis on ‘pastness’: removal of events from the present
- The spectators should feel that if s/he had been living under the conditions shown in the play, he would have taken some positive action
- The spectators should see that, since things have changed, it is possible to make desirable social reforms in the present
Ex. Galileo Galilei- Life of Galileo
Ex. Mother courage and her children
Epic Form of Theatre
Allienation Effect or, Verfremdungseffekt
Allienation Effect or, Verfremdungseffekt
- Historification is part of the larger term alienation (verfremdungseffekt, “make strange”)
- In addition to historification, the playwright may use other means for making things strange
- S/he may intentionally show that the play is not ‘real’ but ‘play-acting’
- Songs, narrative passages, filmed sequences, and other devices may be used for this purpose
- Real life and theatre should not be confused
- A play must always be thought of as a comment on life – something to be watched and judged critically
- Theatre should bring pleasure, “a cheerful and militant learning”
- Alienation does not mean the spectators should be continuously detached
- Brecht manipulates aesthetic distance to involve the spectator emotionally and then jar him out of his empathic response so that s/he may think and judge what s/he has experienced
- Each element of production should contribute to alienation
- The elements should not form a synthesis but be independent of each other
- Music should comment on the action rather than emphasize the meaning of the words
- The contrast of music and words should achieve alienation
Differences Between Dramatic Form of Theatre &
Epic Form of Theatre
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Differences Between Dramatic Form of Theatre & Epic Form of Theatre |
Dramatic Form of Theatre
- the stage embodies an event
- draws the spectator into an event
- consumes his capacity for action
- allows him to have emotions
- provides him with experience
- the spectator is drawn into the plot
- suggestion is used
- feelings are preserved
- man is assumed to be known
- man is unalterable
- suspense about the outcome
- one scene exists for another
- linear development
- the world as it is
- what man ought to do
- his instincts
- thinking determines being
- the stage narrates an event
- makes him an observer, but...
- awakens his capacity for action
- demands decisions from him
- provides him with knowledge
- the spectator is placed opposite the plot
- arguments are used
- feelings are propelled into perceptions
- man is the object of the inquiry
- man is alterable and altering
- suspense about the progress
- each scene exists for itself
- in curves
- the world as it becomes
- what man is forced to do
- his motivations
- social being determines thinking
No
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Dramatic Form of Theatre
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Epic Form of Theatre
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1
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the stage embodies an event
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the stage narrates an event
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2
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draws the spectator into an event
|
makes him an observer, but...
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3
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consumes his capacity for action
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awakens his capacity for action
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4
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allows him to have emotions
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demands decisions from him
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5
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provides him with experience
|
provides him with knowledge
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6
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the spectator is drawn into the plot
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the spectator is placed opposite the
plot
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7
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suggestion is used
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arguments are used
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8
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feelings are preserved
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feelings are propelled into perceptions
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9
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man is assumed to be known
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man is the object of the inquiry
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10
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man is unalterable
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man is alterable and altering
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11
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suspense about the outcome
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suspense about the progress
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12
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one scene exists for another
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each scene exists for itself
|
13
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linear development
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in curves
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14
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the world as it is
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the world as it becomes
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15
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what man ought to do
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what man is forced to do
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16
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his instincts
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his motivations
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17
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thinking determines being
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social being determines thinking
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Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht
Afrin Huda
Lecturer
Jagannath University
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