Bertolt Brecht (U02479)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : LLC-4-LLC

Brecht was one of the twentieth century's greatest writers and theatre directors. He was equally at home with drama, theatre practice and poetry, and he contributed energetically to contemporary political and aesthetic debates. This course focuses on plays that Brecht wrote in the 1920s and 1930s, but we will also look at selected poems, including their musical settings, and essays on theatre and politics. There will be optional film screenings of some of Brecht's own productions, which show how epic theatre worked in practice.
When analysing the plays, we will consider how Brecht responded to different political and cultural contexts during the Weimar Republic and his years in exile, and how he came to channel his rebellion against conventional bourgeois theatre into the development of a new theatrical aesthetic. The plays themselves deal, often in contrasting ways, with issues such as identity, political commitment, motherhood, religion and war. We shall consider these themes alongside current critical debates on epic theatre and the status of Brecht's oeuvre since the collapse of state Socialism in Eastern Europe.

Entry Requirements

none

Variants

? This course has variants for part year visiting students, as follows

Bertolt Brecht (VS2) (Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4))

Subject Areas

Home subject area

European Languages and Cultures - German, (School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, Schedule G)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 4th year

? Delivery Period : Full Year (Blocks 1-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

? Additional Class Information : A 2hr seminar will take place from 16:10-18:00 on Thursdays of EVEN weeks (10 x 2hr sessions). The first session will be on Thursday of week 2; reading lists will be circulated by email prior to this session.