بريخت

by Walter Benjamin, فالتر بنيامين, أميرة الزين (Translator)

The majority of these studies, by one of the outstanding critics of this century, were set down in the years of emigration from Nazi Germany, when Benjamin was a personal friend of Brecht's. Most remained unpublished in the author's lifetime, a few were printed in the short-lived periodicals of exile. Their publication, more than twenty-years after Benjamin's death, revealed him to be Brecht's first and most profound critic.

Genres: Philosophy, Theory, Nonfiction, Theatre, Literary Criticism, Essays, Germany

215 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, media theorist, and essayist. An eclectic thinker who combined elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, Jewish mysticism, and neo-Kantianism, Benjamin made influential contributions to aesthetic theory, literary criticism, and historical materialism. He was associated with the Frankfurt School and also maintained formative friendships with thinkers such as playwright Bertolt Brecht and Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem. He was related to German political theorist and philosopher Hannah Arendt through her first marriage to Benjamin's cousin Günther Anders, though the friendship between Arendt and Benjamin outlasted her marriage to Anders. Both Arendt and Anders were students of Martin Heidegger, whom Benjamin considered a nemesis.
Among Benjamin's best known works are the essays "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) and "Theses on the Philosophy of History" (1940). His major work as a literary critic included essays on Charles Baudelaire, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Franz Kafka, Karl Kraus, Nikolai Leskov, Marcel Proust, Robert Walser, Trauerspiel and translation theory. He also made major translations into German of the Tableaux Parisiens section of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal and parts of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu.
Of the hidden principle organizing Walter Benjamin's thought Scholem wrote unequivocally that "Benjamin was a philosopher", while his younger colleagues Arendt and Theodor W. Adorno contend that he was "not a philosopher". Scholem remarked "The peculiar aura of authority emanating from his work tended to incite contradiction". Benjamin himself considered his research to be theological, though he eschewed all recourse to traditionally metaphysical sources of transcendentally revealed authority.
In 1940, at the age of 48, Benjamin died by suicide at Portbou on the French Spanish border while attempting to escape the advance of the Third Reich. Though popular acclaim eluded him during his life, the decades following his death won his work posthumous renown.

Reviews

[Argos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bir taşla üç kuş vurmak bu kitaba uyacak bir söz bence. Brecht’i, Benjamin’i ve dönemin baskıcı ruhunu anlamak bu kitapla mümkün. İki dost ve birbirinden etkilenen iki antifaşist düşün insanını bir araya getiren bir kitap.

Walter Benjamin zarif uslubuyla Brecht’in eselerini ve düşüncelerini, önceliği doğal olarak tiyatroya vererek anlatıyor. Epik tiyatro ve Brecht’in tiyatro kuramı hakkında çok şey öğretiyor okuyucuya. Sonra şiirlerini örneklerle anlamlandıran, yorumlayan ilginç bir bölüm var.

Brecht’in düz yazılarının, özellikle “denemeler”inin başarısını sıklıkla vurgulayan Benjamin, aralarındaki görüş ayrılıklarını, özellikle Kafka ve Sovyet yönetimi hakkındaki karşıt görüşlerini çok açık bir biçimde anlatıyor.

Kısaca benim gibi hem Brecht’i hem de Benjamin’i seviyorsanız okumanızı şiddetle öneririm.

[Mehrnaz]

[نه افتخاری برای فاتحان و نه تأسفی برای مغلوبان]

کنسل شدن امتحان فردا با برشت جشن گرفتم.

[Seda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Walter Benjamin sıklıkla referans olarak karşıma çıkan bir üstattır benim gözümde. En son Hasan Ali Toptaş'ın Harfler ve Notalar kitabında karşıma çıkmıştır ve Hasan Ali'nin de onu referans olarak göstermesi yüzümde gülümsemeye sebep olmuştur. "Sevdiğim bir üstat, sevdiğim bir üstadı seviyor; demek ki doğru yoldayım" hissiyatı mıdır nedir orasını bilemiyorum. Üstüne bir de kitap Brecht'in üzerine olunca her yeni teori yeni bir noktayı aydınlattı ve tüm bu bilgiler tadından yenilmez bir şenliğe dönüştü gözümde.
Sevdiğim güzel şeylerden biri de bu şekilde kitaplardır zira; yazarın kitapları değil, onun hakkında yazılmış kitaplar. Eşi bulunmaz kaynaklardır bunlar benim gözümde. Yazarı daha yakından tanıma fırsatı bulmamızı sağlar. Bir de bunu yazan Benjamin olunca yakından tanıma fırsatından da öte Brecht'in yüzüne karanlıkta fener tutulmuş hissi yaratan cümleler barındırır kitap.
Epik tiyatro, proletarya ve yazar ilişkisi, üretici olarak yazar ve Brecht hakkında enteresan bilgiler arayanların başvuracağı nadir bir eser, tavsiye edilesidir.

[Mojtaba Asghari · Rating 5 out of 5]

"در زندگی کسی که راه هیچ کس را نبسته، دیگر هیچ اهمیتی ندارد هیچ اتفاق قابل ذکری هم نخواهد افتاد مگر اینکه تصمیم بر این باشد که راه مردم را سد کند و با آرمان جدال طبقاتی ثابت کند که کسی است.
"

"می توان در نومیدی زیست به شرط آنکه بدانیم چگونه موفق شویم!"

این ها نقل قول هایی از برشت از همین کتاب هست ، بیچاره ما که بعد یک قرن هنوز بایست تو ذهن این ملت منتقد فرم محور اون حرف های یک قرن پیش رو از همبستگی فرم و محتوارو بگیم تا بلکه به خودشون بیان و یه قدری بیشتر از گاو از محاسبات اجتماعی دنیا بفهمن و اینقدر نگن تو نمایشنامه کلیشه و شعار ندید و بیانیه سیاسی صادر نکنید!

والتر بنیامین در این کتاب درس خوبی به منتقدانی که تا به امروز سعی در نقد و تفسیر اجراهای مبتنی بر متن برشت بر اساس میل حاکمان دارند میدهد و آن اینست که در اجراهای برشت توده تماشاگر بدل به یک کل منسجم میشود پس منتقد، که امروز همچون فردی برگزیده است دیگر چندان جلوتر از توده نخواهد بود بلکه قطعا خود را پشت سر او خواهد یافت.
برای اثری که نویسنده در آن مترصد کسب کارکردی سازمان دهنده است جهت گیری سیاسی شرطی لازم است اما کافی نیست . نویسنده رویکرد معلم را اختیار میکند .نویسنده ای که به نویسندگان دیگر نمی آموزد اصلا به هیچ کس چیزی نمی آموزد.
مساله مهم نه فکر کردن در انزوا بلکه هنر اندیشیدن در درون سر مردمان است!

برشت:
"می دانم، آنها درباره من میگویند که من دیوانه بودم. اگر تاریخ زمان ما برای آینده به ارث برسد، پس ظرفیت فهم دیوانگی من هم باید با آن به ارث گذاشته شود.
این دوره هایی که ما در آن زندگی میکنیم زمینه ساز دیوانگی من است. اما آنچه واقعا دوست دارم مردم درباره ام بگویند این است که او یک دیوانه متعادل بود.

از چیز های خوب کهن آغاز نکن! بلکه از چیزهای بد جدید شروع کن!

من مخالف ضد اجتماعی بودن نیستم من مخالف غیر اجتماعی بودنم..."

والتر بنیامین درباره برشت:
"او به فرصت در معرض دید گذاشتن لحظه حال در تئاتر بر میگردد و محور تجربه او انسان است
انسان امروز، انسان تقلیل یافته ،
او تنها کسی است که ما داریم، به نفع ماست تا او را بشناسیم و او را موضوع آزمون ها و مشاهدات خود قرار دهیم ..."

[Sencer Turunç · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Öğrenilecek en önemli şey kaba düşünmektir. (...)
Kaba düşünceler, diyalektiğin bir parçasıdır. temsil ettikleri şey teorinin pratik uygulanışından başka bir şey değildir. Kuşkusuz, eylem de düşünce kadar ince olabilir. Ama düşünce kendini eylemde gerçekleştirebilmek için kaba olmak zorundadır." (sayfa 54)

[Karlo Mikhail · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perceptive commentaries here are a testament to Benjamin's close intellectual affinity to Brecht, especially in the forging of an atypical Marxist view of the relations between the literary and the political.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Epic theater is pedagogical. It interrupts action to show the underlying conditions of society. It says things could be different.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still didn't get it

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Brecht-Benjamin relationship was one of the important ones of twentieth-century cultural theory and practice, despite their differences of outlook and disposition. Those differences – or perhaps distinctions is a better term – may be seen in the final section of this welcome republication after 50 or so years of this collection, where a series of Benjamin’s diary entries reflect and report on his time with Brecht.

The other 100 or so pages offer insight both to Brecht’s work and the development of Benjamin’s cultural analysis. There are 30 or so pages of commentary on poems, three pieces exploring specific texts – Brecht’s Threepenny Novel, some of his more didactic short plays, and the dramatic form of The Mother. The remainder of the collection – about half of it – does two things. There is the important essay that merits revisiting and reflection ‘The Author as Producer’, grappling with the dialectic of the text in its social context. The other is three pieces engaging with the notion of Epic Theatre as proletarian practice, including two (quite different) versions of the same essay ‘What is Epic Theatre?’.

Yet, rather than being abstract, dated, or excessively specialist, there is much to reflect on in this collection, especially in the more general pieces, on the form, function, and responsibility of cultural texts and their authors. It’s been a delight to revisit these (in most cases), or the encounter them for the first time – reminding me why Brecht and Benjamin continue to appeal and engage me, and it’s been a while since I’d grappled with such explicitly Marxist cultural theory – oh for more itme to do more…..

[Shannon Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a series of translations of shorter pieces including some previously unpublished personal diaries that weren’t written for the public. In them all you see two intellectuals dealing with a world where Hitler and Stalin are still alive and the world in on the brink of a war that hasn’t yet started.

These essays are about theater and poetry and the role of the author. But they are also about the struggle against facism and how to persist in dark times.

There is a lot here and it bears rereading and researching the context further. I’m very glad to have read it and will think about it long after I finished it. I read it sitting in a cafe while my family read otber books which felt very appropriate.

[Sezin Koehler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant. Highly recommend for anyone interested in how we can apply Brechtian theater principles to current visual media analysis.

[Sinan Öner]

Alman Yazın Tarihçisi, Eleştirmen, Felsefe Yazarı Walter Benjamin'in "Brecht'i Anlamak" kitabı, "Brecht Araştırmaları" arasında, önemli, değerli ve yararlı bir kitap! Brecht, nasıl bir insandı, nasıl bir Yazardı, nasıl bir Tiyatrocu idi? Brecht'in 1. Dünya Savaşı yıllarında (1914-1918) başlayan "sanat hayatı", 1956 yılında Demokratik Almanya'nın başkenti Doğu Berlin'de vefâtı ile sona ermişti. Brecht'in, şiir, tiyatro, müzik, sinema, roman, öykü, deneme, felsefe gibi "sanat"larda kırk yılı aşkın "üretim"inin nasıl bir "üretim" olduğunu ayrıntıları ile "anlamak" için Walter Benjamin'in "Brecht'i Anlamak" başlıklı kitabını mutlaka okumalıdır! Walter Benjamin, Brecht'in iyi bir arkadaşı idi, bu arkadaşlığının da kitabın oluşmasında olumlu katkıları olduğunu kitabı okurken hissediyoruz.

[Jack Rousseau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the full text here: https://monoskop.org/images/1/17/Benjamin_Walter_Understanding_Brecht.pdf

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brecht was a great playwright but benjamin was something else

[Oscar Jelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stuff! Serves as a handy entry point into the work of both Benjamin and Brecht, two writers I bang on about quite frequently but have barely read.

[Rom1noteleslivres · Rating 4 out of 5]

Les textes sur le théâtre épique sont très très bien mais j'avoue que la deuxième partie du livre sur les lettres et les conversations entre les deux c'est paaaaaas

[Michael Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars refers to inclusion of brecht poems. WB's interpretations of brecht's plays sound unconvincing and ideologically tired. brecht comes off looking smarter.

[Altug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Naah, I mean all right. I know Benjamin is big shot in academics and aesthetics and such but this book didn't impress me much. It could be bad translation because it wasn't in his original language however the text wasn't flowing easily. I should admit not being in close proximity of Brecht's works also another factor, because there were some excerpts I am sure it would make more sense someone who is more familiar to epic theatre pioneer's works.But not an initial reading I assume.