Bertolt Brecht

Von Frauen, für Frauen.

Repackaged and reissued, this is Brecht's classic interpretation of John Gay's "The Beggars Opera". It is a vicious satire on the bourgeois capitalist society of the Weimar Republic, married with the jazz music of Kurt Weill. The text is accompanied by Brecht's original notes.

The Lehrstucke (or 'learning-plays') lie at the heart of Brechtian theatre. Written during 1929 and 1930, years of far-reaching political and economic upheaveal in Germany and the period of Brecht's most sharply Communist works, these short plays show an abrupt rejection of most of the trappings of conventional theatre. The Lehrstucke are spare and highly formalized pieces intended for performance by amateurs, on the principle that the moral and political lessons contained in them can best be taught by participation in an actual production. There is nothing in the drama of the twentieth century to match the precision of their language and the economy of their theatrical technique.

Den här volymen innehåller några av de viktigaste av den ungerske litteraturteoretikern Georg (György) Lukács essäer om realismen i litteraturen. Syftet med att översätta dem är att ge underlag för något som idag ter sig angelägnare än en polemik mot Lukács värderingar, nämligen en teoretisk kritik av en hegeliansk filosofi och estetik som med sin vidhängande spegelteori fortfarande spökar i den marxistiska litteraturdebatten, inte bara inom den sfär där Lukács själv nu är ställd åt sidan som politisk revisionist. Bertolt Brechts texter i den här volymen innehåller element till en sådan kritik. De flesta av dem hänför sig till den så kallade expressionismdebatten 1938, som Brecht i verkligheten inte deltog i - hans inlägg publicerades först tio år efter hans död, i Östtyskland 1966 - men dessa mer eller mindre direkta repliker till Lukács har här kompletterats med texter som visar vad motsättningen gäller. "Det gäller realismen" - men därunder, bortom de dåvarande estetiska stridslinjerna, avtecknar sig en alltjämt aktuell motsättning mellan marxismen som världsåskådning och en marxism som försöker göra "realiteten gällande gentemot ideologierna". Obs! Osprättad bok så ta fram brevkniven!

Designed to make Bertolt Brecht's work accessible for today's audience, this bilingual collection shows the range of the German poet's insightful and compelling poetry. Bertolt Brecht is counted as one of the most influential poets and playwrights of the 20th century. Selected Poems features works from Brecht's early Manual of Piety to the late Songs, Poems, and Choruses, including songs from his theater works. Translated from German and introduced by poet H. R. Hays.

"A major Brecht play in an outstanding translation with an expert and up-to-date preface." -Eric Bentley "...a fine translation... Jones has handled Brecht's meters with great skill." -Choice

This volume offers a major selection of Bertolt Brecht's groundbreaking critical writing. Here, arranged in chronological order, are essays from 1918 to 1956, in which Brecht explores his definition of the Epic Theatre and his theory of alienation-effects in directing, acting, and writing, and discusses, among other works, The Threepenny Opera, Mahagonny, Mother Courage, Puntila, and Galileo. Also included is "A Short Organum for the Theatre," Brecht's most complete exposition of his revolutionary philosophy of drama. Translated and edited by John Willett, Brecht on Theater is essential to an understanding of one of the twentieth century's most influential dramatists.

Written in exile during the Second World War, the story of Brecht's classic play subverts an ancient Chinese tale - echoed in the Judgement of Solomon - in which two women claim the same child. The message of Brecht's parable is that resources should go to those who will make best use of them. Thanks to the rascally judge, Azdak, one of Brecht's most vivid creations, this story has a happy outcome: the child is entrusted to the peasant Grusha, who has loved and nurtured it. Published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, this edition features an extensive introduction, Brecht's own notes on the play and a full appendix of textual variants. It is the standard critical edition of the work in an acclaimed translation by James and Tania Stern with W. H. Auden.