LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Bertolt Brecht: Theories
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Das Gesamtwerk von Bertolt Brecht (1898 - 1956) ist ein Spiegelbild der literarischen und politischen Umwälzungen des 20. Jahrhunderts. In dramatischen, lyrischen und theoretischen Texten setzt Bertolt Brecht sich immer wieder mit den turbulenten Ereignissen seiner Zeit auseinander.
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Brecht formutated his literary theories much in reaction to Georg Lukács (1885-1971), a Hungarian philosopher and Marxist literary theoretician. He disapproved Lukács attempt to distinguish between good realism and bad naturalism. Brecht considered the narrative form of Balzac and Tolstoy limited. He rejected Aristotele's concept of catharsis and plot as a simple story with a beginning and end. From Marx he took the idea of superstructure to which art belongs, but avoided too simple explanations of ideological world view - exemplified in the character of the Good Woman of Setzuan.
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The following plays do not conform to the main thrust of Brecht's theory, since they were all completed before much of it was written down. There are ... traces of methods and themes that were to recur later, albeit in a modified and more considered form. He regarded them as "experiments" and as such they are important in his development. They show that Brecht established aspects of form and content, which would later be developed, very early in his career
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In effect, he was conceding that the theory is often less adequate than the practice (the plays as interpreted by Brecht's company). In such cases, the practice must stand until a better theory emerges. In a sense, Brecht's critics have so refined the theory.
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