GERMAN PAPER VIII 2016Tutor: Nicola Thomas, nicola.thomas@st-hildas.ox.ac.uk

BRECHT’S DRAMAPrimary texts

Please read the following selection of key plays and critical works: Der kaukasische Kreidekreis (1944-48) Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui (1941) Der gute Mensch von Sezchuan (1938-42) Kleines Organon für das Theater (1949)

These are mainly drawn from the later phases of Brecht’s work, so you could extend your reading by looking at examples of earlier plays such as the Lehrstücke Die Maßnahme (1930); Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe (1930-31); or his musical theatre, in collaboration with Kurt Weill: Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (1927-29), Dreigroschenoper (1928). More engagement with his theoretical writings would also be useful, for example by reading Der Messingkauf (1939-42), ‘Vergnügungstheater oder Lehrtheater’ (1954), republished in Schriften zum Theater (1957).

Selected secondary literature

Dickson, Keith, Towards Utopia (1978)

Giles, Steve and Stephen Parker (eds), Rethinking Brecht: A Special Number of German Life and Letters (Wiley Blackwell, 2016)

Knopf, Jan, Brecht-Handbuch. Theater. (Stuttgart, Metzler, 1980)

Thompson, Peter and Glendyr Sacks, The Cambridge Companion to Brecht (Cambridge, CUP, 2006)

Völker, Klaus, Brecht-Chronik (1971)

White, John J., Bertolt Brecht's Dramatic Theory (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2004)

Possible essay questions

1. To what extent and in what ways do Brecht’s later plays exemplify his theoretical statements on ‘episches Theater’?

2. Discuss the similarities and differences in dramatic form and technique in relation to AT LEAST TWO of the plays you have read, making reference to Brecht’s theoretical writings as appropriate.

3. ‘[W]enn man sieht, daß unsere heutige Welt nicht mehr ins Drama paßt, dann paßt das Drama eben nicht mehr in die Welt’ (Brecht). Discuss the implications of this statement for Brecht’s drama.