LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 16:12 December 2016
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Purpose and Function of Bertolt Brecht’s Epic Theatre

Dr. Hemant Kumar Shukla and Dr. D.R. Purohit


Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)
Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht

Abstract

The present investigation is an attempt to assess and discuss the purpose and function of Epic Theatre in the light of German dramatist Bertolt Brecht’s theories and practices. He was of the view that the conventional, orthodox theatre was incapable of presenting his straightforward and progressive views. Brecht disliked the shallow spectacle, manipulative plot, and heightened emotion of melodrama. In his view dramatic theatre carried away the audience with emotions, stopping them to make use of their intellect. He wanted to inform, educate and enlighten his audience. He found Epic Theatre suitable for his objective because it assumes that the purpose of a play, more than entertainment or the imitation of reality, is to present ideas and invites the audience to make judgments on them.

Keywords: Verfremdungseffekt, Circus Arena, dramatic theatre, Epic Theatre, Lehrstuck, gest, Ostranenie

Social and Political stance of Brecht

Martin Esslin explains the purpose and intention of ‘epic’ theatre saying that “the audience is to be confronted with a body of evidence from which it is to draw its conclusions in a critical, highly lucid state of mind. The emotions are to be involved only at a further remove.” The critical analysis of the social facts, he continues “presented in the concrete form of living pictures, is to produce socially useful emotions such as indignation at injustice, hatred of oppressors, or an active desire for the overthrow of the existing social order.”1

Brecht writes:
Telling the truth seems increasingly urgent. The Sufferings are greater and the number of sufferers has grown. Compared with the vast sufferings of the masses it seems trivial and even despicable to worry about petty difficulties and the difficulties of petty group.2

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


Dr. Hemant Kumar Shukla
Associate Professor in English
M.B. Govt. P.G. College Haldwani (Nainital)
Uttarakhand-263139
India
hemantkumar.shukla1@gmail.com

Dr. D.R. Purohit
Head of the Department
Department of English
Garhwal University Srinagar-Garhwal
Uttarakhand
India
badri_supreme@yahoo.com

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