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COPYRIGHT 2006 www.wmich.edu/compdr
John J. White. Bertolt Brecht's Dramatic Theory. Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House, 2004. Pp. ix + 348. $90.00.
The cover of John Whites book shows us Brecht--cigar in hand, smiling pleased and somewhat mischievously--as I have seen him often when he was going to respond to an interlocutor' s question with some provocative argument. This personal gestus can also frequently be intuited by the reader of his theoretical writings in the original German. Many of the extensively quoted German passages from the texts covered in Whites book, though they may make the reading difficult for non-German readers, convey this typical gestus of Brecht, so difficult to communicate fully in translation. Furthermore, the often lengthy German quotes help readers appreciate Whites remarkably close readings of Brecht's theoretical deliberations, readings that are as thorough as they are astute and sound in their assessment.
Whites book is the most comprehensive, solidly researched presentation and discussion of Brecht's theory that has been published in English, taking into account much of the scholarship that has been devoted to Brecht's work during five decades. It is an achievement as admirable as it is overdue nearly fifty years after Brecht's death. After all, he is the only German playwright/ director whose works attained a permanent place in the world theater's repertoire and whose ideas had momentous impact on the theory and practice of contemporary theater. White emphasizes that he is "aware this can only be but a first step" (24). He argues convincingly that much further "exegetical close reading" (24) is needed of the many texts left behind by Brecht and published in the Grosse Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe of his works. White reminds us that the very scattered mode of previous English language publication has made it difficult to arrive at a full understanding of Brecht's theoretical and dramaturgical thinking. For instance, John Willett's anthology Brecht on Theatre and his translation of The Messingkauf Dialogues are still the only available writings on dramatic theory in English, and they could only include texts that had been published at the time of Willett's translation. (Willett was at work on a second volume of Brecht on Theatre but, alas, his recent death prevented the completion of the project.) Consequently, White's volume is now the most useful source available in English to scholars and theater workers interested in the study of Brecht's theory and the ways in which his plays and productions informed that theory as much as they were engendered by it.
Among the virtues of White's book are his professed adherence to a method of "focused close readings of chosen passages and arguments "(24) which, he argues, is the only effective way to arrive at a "reading of the theory against the background of Brecht's theater practice" (21). Following his own proposition, he minutely analyzes the texts he takes...
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