
Bertolt Brecht’s Anti-Capitalist Aesthetics
Sat, February 22 @ 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Free
Presenting Bertolt Brecht’s Adaptations and Anti-capitalist Aesthetics Today, a new book by Anthony Squiers. The author will provide an overview of Brecht’s revolutionary Marxist aesthetic and examine its usefulness as a weapon in today’s struggles.
Squiers’s book, published by Brill, examines Brecht’s theory and method of adaptation, using four key Brechtian concepts: Fabel, gestus, estrangement effects, and historicizing. Using that framework, it analyzes four Brechtian adaptations: The Tutor, Don Juan, “Socrates Wounded,” and Kriegsfibel, concluding that Brecht is useful for anti-capitalist aesthetics today because through him one can foster a new consciousness which enables the creation of better social conditions. The book is of value to theatrical practitioners, artists, and theorists.
Anthony Squiers is a faculty member at AMDA College of the Performing Arts and co-editor of E-CIBS, the performance journal of the International Brecht Society. He is author of An Introduction to the Social and Political Philosophy of Bertolt Brecht.