Reporter | Trainee journalist Zhang Jie
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Today marks the 65th anniversary of the death of the German playwright Bertolt Brecht, the founder of narrative theatre.
"In the Dark Ages/Will It Be Sung There/There Will Be Sung There/Sing in the Dark Ages," is a verse That Brecht wrote when he fled the Nazi massacre and went into exile in Denmark. In less than sixty years of his life, he underwent changes in five German social systems—the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the Nazi dictatorship, the GDR, and the Federal Republic. Nevertheless, his passion for artistic creation never waned, and he wrote 48 plays, more than 2300 poems, about 200 short stories, and 3 novels in his lifetime. Brecht also wrote several volumes of theoretical, critical, political and philosophical works, and served as a screenwriter and assistant director for four films. "Poverty" is an important part of the subject of his writing, and he is good at satirizing the hypocrisy of the bourgeois system and portraying the revolutionary forces of the proletariat in his works.
Brecht's greatest contribution to the construction of literary theory and theatrical reform in the 20th century was to put forward the theory of narrative drama. This theory revolutionized the old theatrical form, was an attempt at avant-garde aesthetics and a breakthrough in artistic boundaries, but was not recognized by the older generation of writers who were well-known in the German literary world at the time. In 1922, the Christmas edition of the Berliner Tageblatt published a previously unknown controversy, presenting the clash of two generations under the title Die Alten und die Jungen. In the face of the attack and misreading of the older generation of writers, the German philosopher Walter Benjamin's interpretation of the meaning of narrative drama is a powerful defense for Brecht.
Why is Benjamin completely on Brecht's side? How did the friendship between the two people come together in history? What wonderful resonance do they have with the thinking of intellectuals? The Chinese edition of "On Brecht" was published a few days ago, containing 11 comments by Benjamin on Brecht's narrative plays, poems and other works, and a diary written during a conversation with Brecht in 1929, so that we can find answers in the book on the 65th anniversary of Brecht's death.
<h3>Benjamin, who was attracted to Brecht</h3>
From Benjamin's work, it is not difficult to see his affirmation of Brecht's artistic exploration. According to Benjamin, Brecht's narrative drama is based on the frontiers of technology, "it does not compete with emerging media tools, but tries to use them, to learn from them, that is, to study and dissect them." "Narrative drama borrows from montage techniques, that is, the dramatic techniques of "interrupting" the plot in the performance, and plays an educational role in drama. By causing the audience to be stunned, it forces the public to think about life, and also forces the actor to take a stand on the role he plays. Benjamin argues that "the breakthrough of narrative drama in drama as a social activity is far greater than the rupture it creates in drama as a night entertainment industry." ”
Brecht and Benjamin met in May 1929 through the introduction of Benjamin's girlfriend, Althea Razzis. The two are quite distant in temperament, and compared to Brecht's directness and decisiveness, Benjamin's personality is more silent and sensitive. Despite their very different personalities, their similar historical imaginations and humanitarian conceptions led to their friendship until Benjamin committed suicide in September 1940 while fleeing Nazi persecution. Whether in his circle of friends or later in academia, the relationship between the two has attracted considerable attention and controversy.
The German Jewish thinker Hannah Arendt considered their encounter "the encounter between Germany's greatest living poet and the most important critic of his time, a fact that both sides are fully aware of". But Benjamin's close friend, the German philosopher Theodore Adorno, and the Israeli Jewish theologian Gersholm Shoreham were fiercely resistant to the relationship, arguing that their interaction was a mistake and criticizing Brecht's influence on Benjamin as destructive.
From Benjamin's diaries and commentaries, it can be seen that Benjamin was indeed the party attracted to Brecht, who in his view said, "Brecht is a phenomenon that is difficult to capture." Benjamin not only highly admired Brecht's artistic achievements, calling narrative drama theory "advanced theory of drama", and saw Brecht's creation as a model of real productive utility. At the same time, in casual conversations with Brecht, he also expressed appreciation: "When he said these words, I felt a force that could be opposed to fascism poured into my body. ”
<h3>The special connection of the revolutionary period</h3>
In the process of thinking about the creation of plays, Brecht and Benjamin constantly asked intellectuals what kind of attitude they should take to create plays, and what was the purpose of creating plays. The duo's discussion has a context of the times — two world wars and a global economic crisis erupted in the first half of the 20th century. At this time, the contradictions between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat within German society were acute, and the regime changed.
In Benjamin's view, intellectuals tend to see themselves as "spiritual figures" rather than as producers. In his essay "The Author as a Producer", he quotes The French Ramon Fernand as saying that "intellectuals should be brought to the side of the working class, so that intellectuals are aware that the spiritual activity of the two and their position as producers are identical", and further explained that if intellectuals are only expressed in a formal way in concept, rather than united with the proletariat as producers, their political tendencies, however revolutionary, can only be called "counter-revolutionary".
Take, for example, the neorealist dramas that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, which Brecht saw as an anti-producer tool, and although neorealist dramas heavily propagated revolutionary themes, they lacked thinking about events and the more complex class struggle. Benjamin believes that one of the important reasons why this kind of drama, which uses complex machinery, large lineups and clever special effects, has become a tool for anti-producers is that it has been dragged into competition by film and radio, turning the writing of hardship and anti-hardship struggle into a consumer product and used by the wealthy for entertainment. The same is true of neorealist photography–beautifying rental houses and garbage dumps, understanding hardships in fashionable ways, and thus succeeding in turning hardships into objects of enjoyment.
How did Brecht stand firmly united with the proletariat? According to Benjamin, Brecht's object of creation is "poverty", "he explores the rich creative value of poverty in his works, showing the image of poverty and pity." Brecht, with his rough ideas from the masses and his knowledge of the dialectic of poverty, interprets the object of poverty as the most determined force in the revolution, precisely to produce the revolutionary from "a test tube full of vulgarity and depravity."
bibliography:
Walter Benjamin. On Brecht. Beijing:Beijing Normal University Press,2021,6.]
(de) By Yarn Knopf; Yellow River Translation. Bertolt Brecht: The Art of Living in the Dark Age[M]. Beijing:Social Sciences Academic Press, 2018.11.
YANG Yi. Benjamin on Brecht[J].China Book Review, 2016(10):87-93.
WANG Hui. Two New Poors and Their Futures: The Decline and Re-formation of Class Politics and the Dignity Politics of the New Poor[J].Open Era, 2014(06):49-70+6.
Introduction to [Understanding Brecht], "Bertolt Brecht"
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Gwx169w-rTJmCYYNwgTzpg