Manual of Piety: Die Hauspostille

by Bertolt Brecht, Eric Bentley (Translator)

Book jacket: Known primarily as a dramatist, Bertolt Brecht was also a gifted poet. These fifty poems--among them many ballads that later became part of The Threepenny Opera, Mahagonny, and Baal--reveal the tremendous range and versatility of Brecht's expression. His first and best book of poetry, Manual of Piety uses the traditional form of devotional literature to provide both an irreverant spoof and a serious critique of the post-World War I European (and more specifically, German) culture that gave rise to fascism. His characteristically sly wit combines with mordant social commentary to make Manual of Piety Brecht at his most hilarious--and also his most brutally incisive.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, German Literature, Germany

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. A seminal theatre practitioner of the twentieth century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble—the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel—with its internationally acclaimed productions.

From his late twenties Brecht remained a life-long committed Marxist who, in developing the combined theory and practice of his 'epic theatre', synthesized and extended the experiments of Piscator and Meyerhold to explore the theatre as a forum for political ideas and the creation of a critical aesthetics of dialectical materialism. Brecht's modernist concern with drama-as-a-medium led to his refinement of the 'epic form' of the drama (which constitutes that medium's rendering of 'autonomization' or the 'non-organic work of art'—related in kind to the strategy of divergent chapters in Joyce's novel Ulysses, to Eisenstein's evolution of a constructivist 'montage' in the cinema, and to Picasso's introduction of cubist 'collage' in the visual arts). In contrast to many other avant-garde approaches, however, Brecht had no desire to destroy art as an institution; rather, he hoped to 're-function' the apparatus of theatrical production to a new social use. In this regard he was a vital participant in the aesthetic debates of his era—particularly over the 'high art/popular culture' dichotomy—vying with the likes of Adorno, Lukács, Bloch, and developing a close friendship with Benjamin. Brechtian theatre articulated popular themes and forms with avant-garde formal experimentation to create a modernist realism that stood in sharp contrast both to its psychological and socialist varieties. "Brecht's work is the most important and original in European drama since Ibsen and Strindberg," Raymond Williams argues, while Peter Bürger insists that he is "the most important materialist writer of our time."

As Jameson among others has stressed, "Brecht is also ‘Brecht’"—collective and collaborative working methods were inherent to his approach. This 'Brecht' was a collective subject that "certainly seemed to have a distinctive style (the one we now call 'Brechtian') but was no longer personal in the bourgeois or individualistic sense." During the course of his career, Brecht sustained many long-lasting creative relationships with other writers, composers, scenographers, directors, dramaturgs and actors; the list includes: Elisabeth Hauptmann, Margarete Steffin, Ruth Berlau, Slatan Dudow, Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Paul Dessau, Caspar Neher, Teo Otto, Karl von Appen, Ernst Busch, Lotte Lenya, Peter Lorre, Therese Giehse, Angelika Hurwicz, and Helene Weigel herself. This is "theatre as collective experiment [...] as something radically different from theatre as expression or as experience."

There are few areas of modern theatrical culture that have not felt the impact or influence of Brecht's ideas and practices; dramatists and directors in whom one may trace a clear Brechtian legacy include: Dario Fo, Augusto Boal, Joan Littlewood, Peter Brook, Peter Weiss, Heiner Müller, Pina Bausch, Tony Kushner and Caryl Churchill. In addition to the theatre, Brechtian theories and techniques have exerted considerable sway over certain strands of film theory and cinematic practice; Brecht's influence may be detected in the films of Joseph Losey, Jean-Luc Godard, Lindsay Anderson, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Nagisa Oshima, Ritwik Ghatak, Lars von Trier, Jan Bucquoy and Hal Hartley.

During the war years, Brecht became a prominent writer of the Exilliteratur. He expressed his opposition to the National Socialist and Fascist movements in his most famous plays.

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brecht's poetry is sort of like the headlines from The New York Post. Very direct, and always the right word at the right moment. He was a fantastic writer as well as a playwright - and even more remarkable as a poet. I LOVE his poetry.

[ernst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sehr stark, thematisch breit und noch nicht konsequent revolutionär. Die Armen kommen nur als Leidende, nicht wirklich als Handelnde vor. Aber das Mitgefühl ist enorm und das gesellschaftliche Bewusstsein ist auch deutlich. Keine plumpe Reduktion auf das einseitig Individuelle. Teilweise erinnern die Gedichte in ihrer poetischen Beschreibung von Fäulnis und Tod an Baudelaire.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's super fucking bleak and that's great. I got into the habit of reading one a day and then reading the original german version to see how it changed the flow and to be honest the translations worked pretty well. Lots of stuff about post war germany, lots of insight. . . this was a dude that had seen the darker sides of people before and that came across often. There is this sense of beauty that supersedes it though . . i liked this but it was difficult. I think that's why I liked it.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the Self-Reliant

1

And smoking they sit in
Green shrubs on the beach.
The sky is beginning to
Turn wasted and pale.

2.

Have they managed to get up
Their courage with schnapps?
Astounded they notice
The blackness of night.

3

Are they drinking? And laughing?
Horselaughs rise like smoke.
Weirdly, all at once, the
Red moon's in the trees.

4

Their sky's turning pale, hm?
And how fast this occurred!
They've all had their day yet
Are they still around?

5

Still horselaughing, are they?
"No help like self-help!"
And a breath whispers to them
From the rotting woods:

6

The comfortless winds blow.
The world's sick of them.
The silent night leaves them
Out on the mud flats. (97)

"Brecht explained his methods of composition in the early twenties 'I put together word mixtures like strong drinks, entire scenes in sensory terms depicting a certain consistency and color. Cherry pit, revolver, trouser pocket, paper god. Mixtures of that sort.'" (295).

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Witty, shocking, thoughtful, musical-- Brecht knows how to lay 'em down.
The hardcover edition I have has a big cross in relief on the cover. A perfectly ironic symbol for this book of firecracker verse.

[Mike Cahoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

These poems are like condensed Brecht plays. With all the cynicism, brutality, humor, and social political themes boiled down into verses. Reading them are a great way to get that Brecht-y feeling you get from Threepenny or Mother Courage. Less epic for sure but the feeling is there.

[Mason Rousseau · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bring a copy of this everywhere I go with me. Never leaves my bag. Absolutely stellar, makes me feel emotions I don't know how to describe.

[s 🪶 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crudo, vero, spirituale, eccentrico, vivo. Unico nel suo genere, poetica brechtiana indimenticabile che sfocia nella canzone. Ben presente nella sua epoca e molto attento, Bertolt Brecht partecipa allo strazio di personaggi addolorati e inascoltati.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

genial

[Adria · Rating 3 out of 5]

somewhat esoteric but awesome