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鈥攖he post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel鈥攚ith 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'鈥攔elated 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鈥攑articularly over the 'high art/popular culture' dichotomy鈥攙ying with the likes of Adorno, Luk谩cs, 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 B眉rger insists that he is "the most important materialist writer of our time."
As Jameson among others has stressed, "Brecht is also 鈥楤recht鈥�"鈥攃ollective 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 M眉ller, 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.
Kad je neko u jednom dru拧tvu nagon za vlasni拧tvom nazvao prirodnim, gospodin K. ispri膷a slede膰u pri膷u o ribarima starosedeocima: ,,Na ju啪noj obali Islanda ima ribara koji su tamo拧nje more pomo膰u u膷vr拧膰enih pluta膷a razdelili na komade i me膽usobno podelili. Tim vodenim njivama oni su privr啪eni kao prema svom vlasni拧tvu. Ose膰aju kao da su s njima srasli, nikada ih ne bi napustili, pa ni onda kada u njima vi拧e ne bi bilo riba. Prezirali su stanovnike pristani拧nih gradova kojima su prodavali svoj ulov, misle膰i da su oni povr拧ni ljudi, otu膽eni od prirode. Za sebe su govorili da su ukorenjeni u vodi. Kad uhvate kakvu ve膰u ribu, 膷uvaju je u kaci, nadenu joj ime i vezani su za nju kao za svoje vlasni拧tvo. Od pre nekog vremena govore da im posao ide lo拧e, ali ipak odlu膷no odbijaju svaki poku拧aj reforme, te su obarali ve膰 nekoliko vlada koje nisu vodile ra膷una o njihovim navikama. Takvi ribari neoborivo dokazuju snagu nagona za vlasni拧tvom, kojoj se ljudi po svojoj prirodi pokoravaju." (37)
Meni su se ove crtice Brehtove svidele. Njegov alter ego, gospodin K. ima mnogo toga da ka啪e sa malo re膷i. Koncizno i bez mnogo pompe, ba拧 po mom ukusu.
Evo jednog odlomka:
Pitanje da li ima Boga
Neko zapita gospodina K. da li ima Boga. Gospodin K. re膷e: "Savetujem ti da razmisli拧 da li bi se tvoje pona拧anje promenilo u zavisnosti od toga kako bi glasio odgovor na ovo pitanje. Ako se ne bi promenilo, onda 膰emo to pitanje odbaciti, ali ako bi se promenilo, onda ti mogu bar toliko pomo膰i da ti ka啪em da si se ti ve膰 odlu膷io: tebi je Bog potreban."
鈥淏recht鈥檌n d眉艧眉nce d眉nyas谋n谋n kap谋lar谋n谋 a莽abilecek en de臒erli anahtarlardan biri鈥� denmi艧 kitap tan谋t谋m谋nda ama pek 枚yle de臒il do臒rusu. Bug眉n art谋k pek de tercih edilmeyen bir formda yaz谋lm谋艧, d眉艧眉ncesinin 枚z眉n眉n de 枚z眉 ufac谋k hikayecikler bunlar. O d眉艧眉nce d眉nyas谋na (ve Brecht鈥檌n didaktik ki艧ili臒ine) zaten a艧ina olanlar i莽in g眉zel bu hikayecikler. A艧ina olmayanlar i莽inse mu臒lak, kimi zaman anlams谋z ve hatta s谋k谋c谋 bile olabilirler bence. Brecht okumaya bu kitaptan ba艧lamay谋n. :)
I gave up reading Brecht when I was young, because I (too ambitiously) read his essays on theater and was bored stiff. But this book, Stories of Mr. Keuner makes me want to go back and read his plays. Brecht (or Keuner) is by turns droll, melancholic, cyncical, passionate, and didactic. The 'stories' range from two sentence aphorisms to two page allegories, so hardly "stories" at all, but rather like the analects of Confucius (only funnier and less earnest).
This edition has a fine afterward by the translator, explaining the context in which these fragments were written - more useful as a foreward, but the book is short enough that rereading it is not a burden.
Sometimes witty, sometimes a knife that scratches old wounds. sometimes clear, sometimes vague. I have highlighted many sentences in this book so that I can easily find my favorite parts later. The point is, the parts I have not highlighted are not those I didn't like; but are those which I have to spend much more time to understand.
I remember reading 'If sharks were men' was part of a German grammar lesson. This was among my first exposures to Brecht and got me hooked. The rest of the volume contains other witty insight one would expect from Brecht.