Course finder

<< return to browsing

Semester 2

Bertolt Brecht (Ordinary) (ELCG09007)

Subject

European Languages and Cultures - German

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

In order to be eligible to take 4th Year Options, Visiting Students should have the equivalent of at least two years of study at University level of the appropriate language(s) and culture(s).

Course Summary

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. In addition, we will consider audiovisual material which shows how epic theatre works in practice. All texts studied will be available in English translation, and no knowledge of German is needed to study the course. However, students of German will be encouraged and supported to engage with materials in the original German. 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.

Course Description

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

view the timetable and further details for this course