Brecht is an avant-garde writer. The Verfremdungseffekt is derived from Shklovsky, a Russian formalist. Distancing techniques are essentially meta-theatrical, like the breaking of the 4th wall. Of course, anti-realist techniques are not inherently avant-garde, in the sense that other forms of theater (from Asia, for example), are not avant-garde per se. Placed in a European context, however, they become anti-naturalistic.
Distancing that doesn't serve a didactic function is not Brechtian. In other words, you could use those techniques simply for their entertainment or surprise value.
So you need three things: a set of techniques, a cultural context where those techniques would be seen as distancing (not simply the normal practice of a non-naturalistic theater) and a social intent.
Lorca uses metatheater in the work formerly known as "Comedia sin título." I saw a version that combined this play with a new second act, full of Lorquian kitsch. Grrrr.
7 comments:
This is from or is meta-comment on the text?
It's my commentary. I'm not sure where the weird typography comes from.
It will go into the article.
I have always understood that Shklovsky and Brecht are parallel thinkers, rather than having one influence the other. That is, not S influenced B or B influenced S, but they thought similar things around the same time. So a question: Do you have references for the point that S influenced B? I'd really like to know if I've misunderstood this for decades!
Brecht came up with this in the 1930s. The date I've seen is 1935. Shklovsly's usage was considerably earlier, in 1917, when BB was only 19 years old. He wasn't that much older than Brecht, but the priority is clear.
Douglas Robinson, Estrangement and the Somatics of Literature: Tolstoy, Shklovsky, Brecht (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008). [I haven't read this book, but it is cited in Wikipedia article on this topic].
Thanks for the Robinson title, especially with its reference to Brecht in Moscow in 1935!
You are welcome, Andrew. I will have to read this book now, and not just to be able to cite it in my article. I am genuinely curious.
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