(1898-1956)
German,
Marxist playwright.
Brecht was anti-
Aristotelian : He was critical of
catharsis as a mode of response to
drama, considering it counter-historical, and was critical of 19th cen. drama as serving a bourgeois
ideology. The
spectator, in Brecht's opinion, should be an
observer. Brecht also thought that there should be
decisions,
argument over suggestion, and
critical disengagement.
Brecht distrusted any apparatus that taught a bourgeois agenda (e.g. opera, or 19th cen. drama) because it naturalized human tragedy and made it seem inevitable. He was opposed to realistic settings and costumes and preferred particular over general representations of human behavior. See Stanislavski for his differing views on method acting.