Bertolt Brecht: Journals 1934 - 1955 [Paperback]

Bertolt Brecht (Author, Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415912822 | ISBN-13: 978-0415912822 | Publication Date: December 15, 1995 | Edition: Reprint

Bertolt Brecht's work journals trace his years of exile (the period from 1934 to 1955) in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and America, as well as his return, via Switzerland, to East Berlin. These journals include his perceptive and at times polemical critiques of other writers and intellectuals, but the accounts of his own writing practice provide the greatest insights into the creation of his dramatic work as well as the development of his politics and theories about epic theatre.

There are memorable and revealing passages: about D'Annunzio and Ezra Pond, about the bombing of Germany, about the Greek epigrams, about the Battle of Britain, about the death of Margarete Steffin, about Mrs. Wriggles the family dog, and about the precariousness of life in Los Angeles.

Now available in paperback, and illustrated by photographs and press cuttings collected by Brecht, the Journals offer frequently surprising and revelatory perspectives on the life and thought of one of the most influential writers of the century.

Excerpt: 16 sep 40
it would be unbelievably difficult to express my state of mind as i follow the battle of britain on the wireless and in the awful finnish-swedish papers and then write Puntila. this intellectual phenomenon explains both that such wars can exist and that literary works can still be produced. puntila means hardly anything to me, the war everything; about puntila i can write virtually antyhing, about the war, nothing. and i don't just mean `may', but truly `can'.

it is interesting how remote literature as a practical activity is from the centres where decisive events take place...

Editorial Reviews

Review

Many of the entries are as provocative as anything he wrote, containing ruthlessly candid assessments of his own works and those of others and full of unexpected insights and throw-away judements inviting both consideration and disagreement.
–Kurt Weill Newsletter, Spring 1995

Minor glitches aside, this volume should occupy a place beside Brecht on theater as an indispensible source work for understanding the development of the playwright-poet's views on art, politics, and the theater.
–Kurt Weill Newsletter, Spring 1995

About the Author

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is acknowledged as one of the great dramatists whose plays, work with the Berliner Ensemble and writing have had a considerable influence on the theatre. His landmark plays include The Threepenny Opera and, while exiled from Germany and living in the USA, such masterpieces as The Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 574 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; Reprint edition (December 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415912822
• ISBN-13: 978-0415912822
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,819,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Frankfurt Scholars and Bertolt Brecht., January 11, 2000

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baal (Mexico.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bertolt Brecht: Journals 1934 - 1955 (Paperback)

A very short observation: Every one that wants to explore the reasons of why Adorno and Brecht were water and oil, why Brecht was very interested in dialectical relationships between wave and matter or why Brecht never ended at Frankfurt receiving three naked students meanwhile a director, can't miss this book.