Bertolt Brecht's Dramatic Theory

THE MESSINGKAUF PROJECT (1939–1956) ♦ 307
account of the political aesthetic underlying Brecht’s final phase of work as a
director.
As we saw in the discussion of “Über die Theatralik des Faschismus,”
Brecht was beginning to draw parallels between the thought control methods
of the National Socialists and the techniques of Aristotelian and Naturalist
theater. In this respect, Der Messingkauf is engaging in the same process
of “confronting” the theater with the real world that his fourth “Nachtrag”
sees as the task of Epic Theater. When contrasting the impact of Epic Theater
with the effect Aristotelian works have on their audiences, Brecht formulates
the difference using defamiliarizing political terms: someone watching
Epic Theater “wird nicht völlig ‘in Bann gezogen,’ seelisch nicht gleichgeschaltet,
nicht in eine fatalistische Stimmung dem vorgeführten Schicksal
gegenüber gebracht” (GBA, 22:701). In similar fashion, he presents the
Theater of the Scientific Age in terms relating dramatic advances to historical
context: “Das neue Theater ist einfach ein Theater des Menschen, der angefangen
hat, sich selbst zu helfen. 300 Jahre Technik und Organisation haben
ihn gewandelt. Sehr spät vollzieht das Theater die Wendung” (GBA,
22:700). The points made so far will eventually be elaborated in Kleines Organon.
But in the third “Nachtrag” Brecht already indicates some directions
in which this train of thought needs to be taken. First, he refers to “der V-
Effekt” as a “soziale Maßnahme” (ibid.), not only making the general point
that “Verfremdung” is more than just an alternative artistic device for addressing
“den gesellschaftlichen Menschen,” but also bringing out the specifically
Marxist dimension of “Produktion” by presenting it as an example
of collective self-help. Second, by contextualizing “Verfremdung” as the defining
feature in an aesthetic of the Theater of the Scientific Age, he succeeds
in integrating theatrical advances within a model of historical progress, an
idea also fleshed out in more detail in the early parts of Kleines Organon. In
the Messingkauf complex, more so than in Kleines Organon, “Verfremdung”
does remain “in der Mitte”: “Das Theater, das mit seinem V-Effekt eine
solche staunende, erfinderische und kritische Haltung des Zuschauers
bewirkt, ist, indem es eine Haltung bewirkt, die auch in den Wissenschaften
eingenommen werden muß, noch kein wissenschaftliches Institut. Es ist
lediglich ein Theater des wissenschaftlichen Zeitalters” (GBA, 22:702).
“Messingkauf” and Marxism
A fragment from the first phase of work on Der Messingkauf has the Philosopher
explaining his ideological mission to the representatives of the theater
not long after his arrival among them on the First Night.
Die Wissenschaft sucht auf allen Gebieten nach Möglichkeiten zu
Experimenten oder plastischen Darstellungen der Probleme. Man