Mediations: Essays on Brecht, Beckett, and the media

by Martin Esslin

First published in 1980, Mediations supplements, extends, and deepens Martin Esslin’s earlier writings on Samuel Beckett and Bertolt Brecht. In the third section of this collection of essays, Esslin discusses the mass media as dramatic art and their effects – radio as a medium for drama; television’s insatiable appetite for artistic skills, its commercials, and its series, which he labels modern folk epics. Intimately acquainted with the cultural implications of several languages and ideologies and with the possibility for distortion inherent in translating them, Esslin’s Mediations gathers together decades of his rich experience and reflections on cross linguistic and artistic boundaries, as well as theatre. This book will be of interest to students of literature, drama, and media studies.

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Martin Julius Esslin OBE (6 June 1918 – 24 February 2002) was a Hungarian-born English producer and playwright dramatist, journalist, adaptor and translator, critic, academic scholar and professor of drama best known for coining the term "Theatre of the Absurd" in his work of that name (1961).

Born Julius Pereszlényi (Hungarian: Pereszlényi Gyula Márton) in Budapest, Esslin moved to Vienna with his family at a young age. He studied Philosophy and English at the University of Vienna and also graduated from the Reinhardt Seminar as a producer. Of Jewish descent, he fled Austria in the wake of the Anschluss of 1938.

Esslin defined the 'Theatre of the Absurd' as that which

"The Theatre of the Absurd strives to express its sense of the senselessness of the human condition and the inadequacy of the rational approach by the open abandonment of rational devices and discursive thought."

Esslin's definition encompassed not only Beckett's works but those of Sławomir Mrożek, Eugène Ionesco, Harold Pinter, Jean Genet, Günter Grass and Edward Albee amongst others.

He began working for the BBC in 1940, serving as a producer, script writer and broadcaster. He was head of BBC Radio Drama 1963-77, having previously worked for the external European Service. After leaving the BBC he held senior academic posts at Florida State and Stanford Universities.

He also adapted and translated many works from the original German, for example many plays of Wolfgang Bauer between 1967 and 1990. Original works included the seminal Theatre of the Absurd, and The Field of Drama.

Esslin died in London on February 24, 2002 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.

Source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[fake · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one’s from a dump, left by someone theatrical and terribly smart a couple of months ago near my house. 240 pages seemed like a good way back into reading—not too overwhelmingly long for my almost-forgotten patience. It turned out to be an extremely and pleasantly insightful read on two of the most important playwrights of the 20th century. Part on media somehow was both naïve, as I expected from something written so long ago (from a time when Britain had three TV channels), and yet unexpectedly relevant, it managed to be even more insightful than I thought possible.

The writers’ portraits are precious, not because the author tries to capture these giants fully, but because they show them in fragments—pieces of works or works about their works. This only magnifies the effect of the text.

The essay on media offered a fresh (at least to me) view of TV as a kind of new folk art, reflecting communal psyche. Reading the book also convinced me of the importance of radio plays, which I’d barely considered before.

Won’t list any quotes—lazy—just read it. A bit of trivia for myself: the BBC Radiophonic Workshop started by making animal sounds for Beckett’s play.