| Instructor: Philip Holden, Associate Professor, English Language and Literature,
NUS |
Week 7 (2): Alienation
Read the following texts:
Brecht, "On Chinese Acting"
Brecht, "Theatre for Learning"
We'll also watch Kuo Pao Kun's No Parking on Odd Days and The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole
Making Connections
In this session, we will look at another form of narrative, drama. We'll be trying to think about whether any features of drama help us escape or "unsettle" ideology, and use the ideas of Bertolt Brecht to help us explore this issue.
Bertolt Brecht was a German playwright whose work first became influential in the 1920s and 1930s, when cinema was becoming popular as an art form. The technology of cinema developed rapidly, and it seemed to offer much greater possibilities of realism than drama, which was largely confined to a middle-class audience. This is still the case in Singapore today: cinema is more popular than the theatre, which is perceived by many people--wrongly--as a high cultural activity.
Brecht argued that theatre should not attempt to be realistic, but should rather try to make audiences question the reality and ideological framework in which they live. Rather than producing a picture of the world for self-satisfied, affluent audiences, drama should attempt to make audiences critical of what they saw on stage, raising their consciousnesses and thus making them take action in the world outside the theatre.
The essays we will read develop two key Brechtian terms--"alienation" and "epic theatre." Brecht's article "On Chinese Acting" on jingju (Beijing opera, something like the various South Chinese dialect wayang in Singapore) was inspired by watching the great actor Mei Lanfang. Whether Brecht gets jingju wrong or right is something for you to think about, but his point about alienation is important. Jingju does not attempt to immerse one in reality, but rather uses stylised gestures and symbols, while women's roles are played by men. In Brecht's interpretation, there is always a critical distance between spectator and play which was not present in European drama at the time he wrote the essay. By introducing "alienation" into his plays, Brecht hoped to encourage the audience to be critical of what they saw on stage--to make judgments, rather than to be passive recipients, to make them strangers to themselves.
Brecht's second essay, "Theatre for Learning," elaborates upon these ideas. Brecht calls the kind of theatre that he wants to encourage "epic theatre," and distinguishes it from "dramatic theatre," in which audiences are caught up in the action, and thus do not exercise their critical faculties. Note Brecht's reference to defamiliarization, which should enable you to make connections with a following session.
When watching the play, you may be interested in thinking of some elements of discourse and story which seem particular to drama, as well as those (time shift, plot, character) which seem to be shared with prose fiction:
- Actor's appearance
- Gestures, facial expression and movement
- Props and setting
- Lighting
- Vocal intepretation of the play text
- Music
Preparatory Questions
1. Can you describe any elements of discourse which particularly struck you about the play? What are their effects on you as a member of the audience?
2. Kuo Pao Kun has been explicitly involved in political theatre in Singapore, and spent many years in detention. He has certainly read and studied Brecht's ideas. Can you apply any of Brecht's ideas to describe what is happening in Kuo's plays? Try to recall a specific scene or incident as an example when you post your reply.
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