“Erase the traces”: urban experience in Walter Benjamin’s commentary on Brecht’s lyric poetry

Autori

  • Luciano Gatti Universidade Federal de São Paulo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13130/2039-9251/9510

Abstract

This paper addresses Walter Benjamin’s commentary on the poems of the cycle “Handbook for City-Dwellers” by Bertolt Brecht, in order to discuss the specificity of Brechtian lyricism in the realm of Benjamin’s reflexions on modern urban lyric. Benjamin resumes two decisive issues to the constitution of Brecht's work: the sobriety of language and teaching as a form of transmission of urban and political experience. This link between experience and transmission is not reduced to the instruction of survival conditions in the city. It is constituted by the learning of a critical attitude related to the city. While communication between isolated individuals is precarious and the political organization illegal, the poems seek to build a bond between “I” and “you” by the poetic reflection on the urban experience.

Riferimenti bibliografici

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BRECHT, Bertolt, Gesammelte Werke, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1968.

KNOPF, Jan (Hrsg.), Brecht-Handbuch, Metzler, Stuttgart 2003.

KRABIEL, Klaus-Dieter, Brechts Lehrstüke. Entstehung und Entwicklung eines Spieltyps, Metzler, Stuttgart 1993.

—, “Die Ma゚nahme”, in J. Knopf (Hrsg.), Brecht-Handbuch, Metzler, Stuttgart; Weimar 2001.

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MÜLLER, Heiner, “Fatzer ± Keuner”, in Werke 8, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2005.

MÜLLER-SCHÖLL, Nikolaus. Das Theater des “konstruktiven Defaitismus”: Lektüren zur Theorie eines Theaters der A-Identität bei Walter Benjamin, Bertolt Brecht und Heiner Müller, Stroemfeld/Nexus, Frankfurt am Main; Basel 2002.

STEINWEG, Reiner, Die Maßnahme. Kritische Ausgabe mit einer Spielanleitung von Reiner Steinweg, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1972.

—, Das Lehrstük. Brechts Theorie einer politisch-ästhetischen Erziehung, Metzler, Stuttgart 1972.

SZONDI, Peter, Theorie des modernen Dramas 1880-1950, in Schriften I, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1978.

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Pubblicato

2018-01-20

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Sezione

Sezione Monografica