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Die Dreigroschenoper (1928). Dreigroschenroman
620 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2001
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110 people want to read
About the author
Bertolt Brecht
1,612 books1,935 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 25, 2024
Es war sehr interessant zu lesen. Spannend. Toll formuliert. Interessante Themen. Dennoch stelle ich es mir gesungen besser vor, alsoo müsste ich es dann nochmal neu bewerten ^^; Auch würde ich gerne noch mal die Zitate raus schreiben, um die Moral zu sortieren.
August 3, 2021
Hallo Ich studiere gern Bertolt Brecht als teenager und denke "Lied von der Unzulaenglickeit Menschlichen Strebens" ist gut Titeln. Ich bin nicht Deutsch und finde, dass "Und der Haiiiiiiiifisch, der hat Zaeeeeeehne, Und die treaeeeeeegt er immmmmmmmmmm Gesicht" ist "lustig" und "fun". Die alte Lied or the old song was funny for me as a teenager, I was born in 1991 so I thought it sounded "old and classy and jazzy".
We had so much to study auf Deutsch or in German and I purchased a lovely English paperback translation of the book so I'm hoping to use these in my own career.
"Der Mensch ist gar nicht gut" - eine Leute in the book.
"Eifrig"= "empathically".
" wie nur Bettler"- "like only a beggar".
"Eine Meinungsverschiedenheit" = "a difference of opinion".
"I'm a moody woman so there's even a Melodrama song in it for me to read over here to myself".
Page 22 of the Surkamp Verlag book edition gibt es Hochzeitsleid aber mir ist nicht verheiratet.
Alle viele Gruesse und Liebe.
We had so much to study auf Deutsch or in German and I purchased a lovely English paperback translation of the book so I'm hoping to use these in my own career.
"Der Mensch ist gar nicht gut" - eine Leute in the book.
"Eifrig"= "empathically".
" wie nur Bettler"- "like only a beggar".
"Eine Meinungsverschiedenheit" = "a difference of opinion".
"I'm a moody woman so there's even a Melodrama song in it for me to read over here to myself".
Page 22 of the Surkamp Verlag book edition gibt es Hochzeitsleid aber mir ist nicht verheiratet.
Alle viele Gruesse und Liebe.
July 25, 2017
German // English
Ja, ich musste es lesen in der Schule und ja, es hat mir gefallen. Warum? Ja, weil es mal etwas anderes war. Wir haben vor Bertolts Brecht seinen Werk den Krebsgang gelesen, welcher mir nicht wirklich gefallen hat. Da war diese Buch eine nette Abwechslung.
Ich empfehle dieses Buch nur denjenigen die etwas über das epische Theater lernen wollen. Es ist ein guter Anhaltspunkt, um sich in das Thema einzuarbeiten. Plus, es ist (eventuell :P) Abiturthema.
Es war ein typisches kurzes Buch, welches man innerhalb von einem Nachmittag mal durch hat. Die Geschichte ist ziemlich gut und man kann sich den Ort des Geschehens praktisch vorstellen. Verschiedene Lieder machen das Buch unterhaltsamer und geben es einen gewissen Touch.
//
I recommend this book to anyone wants to learn about the epic theater. Otherwise, I advise you to stay away from this book and look for a similar piece of work. It's something unique though since it
expands your knowledge about certain things and some things might shock you.
It definitely has a touch I like.
Well. In the end, it's up to you to read it. It's only 80 pages (i think..?), so it's a quick read.
Ja, ich musste es lesen in der Schule und ja, es hat mir gefallen. Warum? Ja, weil es mal etwas anderes war. Wir haben vor Bertolts Brecht seinen Werk den Krebsgang gelesen, welcher mir nicht wirklich gefallen hat. Da war diese Buch eine nette Abwechslung.
Ich empfehle dieses Buch nur denjenigen die etwas über das epische Theater lernen wollen. Es ist ein guter Anhaltspunkt, um sich in das Thema einzuarbeiten. Plus, es ist (eventuell :P) Abiturthema.
Es war ein typisches kurzes Buch, welches man innerhalb von einem Nachmittag mal durch hat. Die Geschichte ist ziemlich gut und man kann sich den Ort des Geschehens praktisch vorstellen. Verschiedene Lieder machen das Buch unterhaltsamer und geben es einen gewissen Touch.
//
I recommend this book to anyone wants to learn about the epic theater. Otherwise, I advise you to stay away from this book and look for a similar piece of work. It's something unique though since it
expands your knowledge about certain things and some things might shock you.
It definitely has a touch I like.
Well. In the end, it's up to you to read it. It's only 80 pages (i think..?), so it's a quick read.
January 27, 2023
3/5 naja, was will man sagen, es ist eben eine deutschlektüre. Zwischendurch habe ich nicht alles verstanden, aber es hat sich eigentlich ganz gut lesen lassen
October 3, 2023
Das beste Stück das je geschrieben wurde.
October 28, 2016
A must-read -- and I think a definite performance piece. The message is still scarily relevant. If you think Brecht is dated, I dare you read this play for its portrayal of poverty, crime, manipulation, abuse and all sorts of other themes that look rather familiar right now. Not to mention the great songs by Weill.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews