Book contents
- Bertolt Brecht in Context
- Bertolt Brecht in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figure
- Notes on Contributors
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- A Note on Brecht in English
- Introduction
- Part I Brecht’s World
- Chapter 1 Brecht’s Augsburg Years
- Chapter 2 Models for Epic Theater from the Munich Years:
- Chapter 3 Brecht in the Weimar Republic
- Chapter 4 Brecht’s Emergence as a Young Poet
- Chapter 5 Brecht and Music: The Fly in the Amber
- Chapter 6 Brecht and Political Theater
- Chapter 7 Brecht and Germany
- Chapter 8 “[She] made suggestions. We took them”: Bertolt Brecht’s Women Collaborators
- Chapter 9 Brecht’s Interviews
- Chapter 10 Brecht and Exile
- Chapter 11 Brecht and the German Democratic Republic
- Chapter 12 The Berliner Ensemble
- Part II Brecht’s Work
- Part III The World’s Brecht
- Concise Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 10 - Brecht and Exile
from Part I - Brecht’s World
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2021
- Bertolt Brecht in Context
- Bertolt Brecht in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figure
- Notes on Contributors
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- A Note on Brecht in English
- Introduction
- Part I Brecht’s World
- Chapter 1 Brecht’s Augsburg Years
- Chapter 2 Models for Epic Theater from the Munich Years:
- Chapter 3 Brecht in the Weimar Republic
- Chapter 4 Brecht’s Emergence as a Young Poet
- Chapter 5 Brecht and Music: The Fly in the Amber
- Chapter 6 Brecht and Political Theater
- Chapter 7 Brecht and Germany
- Chapter 8 “[She] made suggestions. We took them”: Bertolt Brecht’s Women Collaborators
- Chapter 9 Brecht’s Interviews
- Chapter 10 Brecht and Exile
- Chapter 11 Brecht and the German Democratic Republic
- Chapter 12 The Berliner Ensemble
- Part II Brecht’s Work
- Part III The World’s Brecht
- Concise Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This essay places Brecht within the context of exile from Nazi Germany, follows him on his journey through Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and the Soviet Union, and reviews his years in American exile where he joined the German-speaking émigré community in Los Angeles: soon an Enemy Alien. The essay captures Brecht's lived experience of exile as it enters his writing, from his journal entries and correspondence to his numerous poems – which offer sharp insights into the exilic fate, its contemporary dimensions as well as historical antecedents. Furthermore, the essay calls attention to the precarious situation of writers in exile, deprived of publication venues and severed from audiences, and surveys Brecht's own publishing network and its virtual elimination toward the late 1930s. Finally, the essay brings Brecht into contact with other exiles, such as Joseph Roth, Oskar Maria Graf, Anna Seghers, Lion Feuchtwanger, as well as Heinrich and Thomas Mann, and investigates the extent to which the exilic “we” in Brecht's exile poetry – suggesting a community of exiles conjoined in their effort to combat Nazismcorresponded to an existing sense of togetherness and shared responsibility among the exiles, Brecht included: a “people's front” in the spirit of Heinrich Mann.
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- Bertolt Brecht in Context , pp. 89 - 96Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021