Berthold Brecht and Epic Theatre

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

• 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

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

 Epic Form of Theatre

• 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	Dramatic Form of Theatre	Epic Form of Theatre
1	the stage embodies an event	the stage narrates an event
2	draws the spectator into an event	makes him an observer, but...
3	consumes his capacity for action	awakens his capacity for action
4	allows him to have emotions	demands decisions from him
5	provides him with experience	provides him with knowledge
6	the spectator is drawn into the plot	the spectator is placed opposite the plot
7	suggestion is used	arguments are used
8	feelings are preserved	feelings are propelled into perceptions
9	man is assumed to be known	man is the object of the inquiry
10	man is unalterable	man is alterable and altering
11	suspense about the outcome	suspense about the progress
12	one scene exists for another	each scene exists for itself
13	linear development	in curves
14	the world as it is	the world as it becomes
15	what man ought to do	what man is forced to do
16	his instincts	his motivations
17	thinking determines being	social being determines thinking

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht

Afrin Huda

Lecturer

Jagannath University