LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Bertolt Brecht: Works
built 648 days ago
The work of Bertolt Brecht (1898 - 1956) holds up a mirror to the literary and political tumult of the twentieth century. In his dramatic, poetical and theoretical texts he involves himself time and time again with the turbulent events of the times in which he lived.
Source:
Brecht was a son of his time. He lived and fought in a definite society, in definite historico-social conditions. He penetrated this society in the content of his works. They are artistic chronicles of this society, of its most acute problems, seen under the light of the Marxist world outlook. Consequently, he brought to the art of socialist realism his own original voice.
Source:
The International Brecht Society Homepage is maintained as a service to scholars, critics, students, and theater people round the world who are interested in the works and thought of Brecht. Readers of the IBS website are encouraged to send announcements and information for posting. Please use the Suggestion Box or email the website Technical Supervisor. Mail or faxes sent to the website Managing Editor will take significantly longer to post.
Source:
Brecht was taught Marxism by his friends Karl Korsch and Walter Benjamin, both highly original thinkers and staunch anti-Stalinists. Through them, he acquired a love for dialectics, confidence in the working class’s ability to liberate itself, and a marked distrust of official Communist leaders. In the 1930s, he even read and grappled with the ideas of Leon Trotsky.
Source:
Brecht died an early death at the age of 58 in 1956, leaving a legacy which has been taken up by nearly every country in the world, particularily those where political activity is occurring. His humour and scepticism combined with Gestic and Epic techniques have proved as fruitful as confusing to those who try to produce his works or in his style. Some of his innovations, though, have become so commonly taken on that one hardly remembers the lack of them before him.
Source:
Brecht's theory never arrived at a fixed and final view. His ideas changed, developed, mellowed - especially because of practice in real works on stage. Much of his theory was explanation after the writing of the plays - not the bases on which these were written. And, in the writing of plays for real performance, Brecht's sense of what works is always paramount.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Works