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Im Dickicht der Städte. Erstfassung und Materialien
Brecht prend le soin, avant le début de sa pièce, d'« avertir » le lecteur : « Vous vous trouvez à Chicago en l'année 1912. Vous observez deux êtres humains se livrer comme sur un ring un inexplicable combat, et assistez au déclin d'une famille, venue de la savane jusque dans la jungle de la grande ville.»
173 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1927
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About the author
Bertolt Brecht
1,605 books1,921 followersEugen 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 17, 2013
From BBC radio 3 - Drama on 3:
An early Bertolt Brecht play in which two men join in a deadly struggle for survival.
An early Bertolt Brecht play in which two men join in a deadly struggle for survival.
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December 20, 2021«Αν σωριάζατε ανθρώπινα πλάσματα μέσα στ’ αμπάρι ενός πλοίου ως τα μπούνια, θα υπήρχε τέτοια μοναξιά εκεί μέσα ώστε όλοι θα πέθαιναν από κρύο»
October 14, 2017
Nous ne sommes pas libres. Ça commence le matin avec le café et avec des coups, quand on est un singe, et les larmes des mères salent les repas des enfants, et leur sueur leur lave la chemise, et on est en sécurité jusqu'à la période glaciaire, et la racine se tient dans le coeur. et a-t-il terminé sa croissance, et veut-il faire quelque chose à fond, alors il est payé, estampillé, vendu au prix fort, et il n'a même pas la liberté de sombrer.
December 15, 2024
جالبترین قسمت این نمایشنامه برای من علاوه بر نبرد تا پای جان هگلی که در خلال آن نقش ارباب و بنده مشخص میشود و بین دو کاراکتر اصلی این نمایشنامه - اشلینک و جرج گارگا - شکل میگیرد، بستر این روایت بود: شیکاگو. نمیدانم چرا برشت شیکاگو را برای این روایت انتخاب میکند، اما بهنظرم نقشی که شیکاگو بهعنوان تجسمی از جهان سرمایهداری و مدرن در قرن بیستم ایفا میکرده در آن بیتأثیر نبوده است و مدام یاد ساختمانهای بلند مکتب شیکاگو میافتادم موقع خواندن نمایشنامه.
May 31, 2023
Verwirrend fantastisch!
Wie man es (leider) von Brecht kennt, kommen die Frauenfiguren nicht gut weg. Trotzdem hat man im kompletten Verlauf des Buches das Gefühl, nicht zu wissen, warum was genau passiert. Genau das sollte erreicht werden - Chapeau! Ich bin ein großer Fan davon, wie gezeigt werden kann, dass innerhalb eines Streites zwischen zwei Personen auch das Umfeld darunter leidet.
Wie man es (leider) von Brecht kennt, kommen die Frauenfiguren nicht gut weg. Trotzdem hat man im kompletten Verlauf des Buches das Gefühl, nicht zu wissen, warum was genau passiert. Genau das sollte erreicht werden - Chapeau! Ich bin ein großer Fan davon, wie gezeigt werden kann, dass innerhalb eines Streites zwischen zwei Personen auch das Umfeld darunter leidet.
January 22, 2024
Hollo’s translation captures the poetic style of Brecht like no one else. One of his earlier plays it isn’t concerned with why two men should fight or why they should undertake certain actions over the course of the conflict. More with how undertake the struggle. It is an attempt at capturing a particular state of mind.
August 9, 2024
Es war wild, sagen wir so 😅 Es war manchmal sehr komisch aber auch verwirrend, aber was ich sagen kann, die Chemie zwischen garga und shlink war krass. Also das nenn ich mal Feindschaft mit Leib und Seele (und ein bisschen homorerotik)
February 19, 2023
Chicago set-Brecht; title surely an illusion to the Upton Sinclair book.
February 11, 2024
Boo subpar Brecht
February 11, 2025
très décousu, mais une morale intéressante sur le capitalisme et sur le sens de l'existence
March 26, 2007
برشت در پیش گفتار نمایش می گوید؛ "شما در شیکاگوی سال 1912 هستید، و شاهد یک زورآزمایی خارق العاده میان دو مرد، و سقوط خانواده ای که به جنگل شهری بزرگ نقل مکان کرده اند. بخاطر این مبارزه، لازم نیست نگران کله هاتان باشید، فقط به شرط بندی روی مهارت دو طرف، و نتیجه ی نهایی فکر کنید. برشت در این پیش پرده، زندگی در کلان شهر سرمایه داری را به مبارزه ای برای "ماندن" تشبیه کرده که در آن هر دو طرف مبارزه، شکست می خورندو جورج گارگا و شلینک، در اصل دو بوکسوری هستند که روی صحنه ی کلان شهر سرمایه داری، به جان هم افتاده اند. یک حسابدار معمولی و یک تاجر خرده پا، هر کدام باند و گروه خودشان را دارند، گروه که برای "پیروزی" در جنگل شهر سرمایه داری، سخت مورد نیاز است. آنها بخاطر مسایل زندگی، به جویدن و دریدن یکدیگر، تقلب و دزدی و کلاهبرداری و... واداشته می شوند و حیثیت انسانی شان در گرو پیروز شدن بر حریف هم ردیف و هم طبقه ی خود، به فساد و فحشاء و انحراف کشیده می شود. در انتها یکی جان خود را از دست می دهد، و دیگری در عزای زندگی، دوست و خانواده ی از دست رفته، در می یابد که در این مبارزه، بسیار دور رفته، هستی سوخته را می فروشد و به رفتن به نیویورک می اندیشد.
April 27, 2015
Vorrede war das Beste! :)
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews