Although
he would later try to pass himself off as having peasant origins,
Bertolt Brecht was born to a conventionally middle class family in
Bavaria in 1898. When World War I broke out, Brecht avoided service
until he was eventually drafted. He served as a medical orderly far from
the front. In the late 1910s, Brecht began getting involved in the
theater, first writing drama reviews, and then directing and writing his first
play Baal. He would continue to
produce plays in Germany until the Nazis took power when he became an
expatriate, eventually settling in the United States and doing some work
for Hollywood. During the Cold War, Brecht left the United States and
eventually settled in East Berlin. While he continued to write plays,
they did not achieve the same notoriety of his earlier work. He died in
1956 of a heart attack.Brecht was committed to Marxism for most of his adult life and his hope was for his plays to serve Marxist purposes. As such, he wanted his plays to have an instructive quality that would cut through bourgeois ideology. Brecht hopped to accomplish this by what he called "verfremdungseffekt" or "alienation effect." Unlike naturalist theater which tries to sustain the illusion of realism, Brecht attempted to point out to his audience that they were in fact watching a play. The audience is intended to observe themselves watching a play and export this critical skill to the world outside the theater.
Viewing & Reading:
Required: 3 Penny Opera, dir. G. W. Pabst
Screening will be September 30, 5:30 PM. The film is on reserve at the library.
Recommended: Brecht essays on theater (PDF) Reading is in our class packet
Study Question
1. What does the film have to say about society? What was the implicit argument of the film?
2. Bring in three discussion questions about 3 Penny Opera. These questions will be answered by your fellow students in class.
3. Summarize Brecht's main points in the reading for next session. What is the epic theater? What does Brecht want it to do? How might these ideas reflect what Pabst does with his adaptation of Brecht's Three Penny Opera? (3 pts e/c)
