Jürgen Hillesheim Book order

English & GermanDeutsch & EnglischBrecht and Death addresses fundamental issues in Brecht’s relationship to death: from his own personal approach to death to the complex ways that death is addressed or evaded in his major literary and theatrical works, as well as in his theoretical writings. Brecht’s status as a revenant (a Wiedergänger) in contemporary society is explored: the various ways in which “Brecht” as a cultural signifier continues to exist over five decades after the death of Brecht as a person. Essays ask how a materialist and atheist like Brecht was or was not able to find consolation in aesthetic-political theories and practices that, for him, replaced religious beliefs and rituals that he rejected.  The volume includes essays by some of the leading figures in international Brecht scholarship—among others, Jost Hermand, Hans-Thies Lehmann, Marc Silberman, Karen Leeder, and Tom Kuhn.

English / GermanDeutsch / EnglishAlthough the work of the young Bertolt Brecht used to be neglected by literary and theater scholars, it has attracted growing attention. Brecht’s early work—including the work that he did in his teens as a schoolboy in Augsburg—is far too complex and differentiated simply to be written off as a proto-Marxist phase paving the way for the "classic" Brecht. The contributions to this volume show the ambitious young man in a field of tension between his radical questioning of moral, religious, and literary authorities and his unconditional will to become a famous writer, even if it meant making significant compromises. The volume explores the young Brecht in a multifaceted, complex way, and its authors—Reinhold Grimm, Jan Knopf, James K. Lyon, and others—take different, sometimes conflicting, positions about the writer. Published for the first time are two previously unknown texts by the young Brecht.ISSN: 0734-8665