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Reading Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories (1935–39) through an important debate in the Marxist aesthetics of the period between Sergei Tretiakov and Georg Lukács, this article argues that Isherwood’s famous statement “I am a camera” should be reimagined as a declaration of radical antihumanism with key implications for both Marxist and queer theory. In so doing, it proposes that Isherwood’s literary praxis of self-instrumentalization advances a definition of the human that refuses both property ownership and heterosexual monogamy. In light of this new reading, Isherwood’s place in the leftist and queer canons must be reconstituted, as should the relationship between certain strains of Soviet Marxism and queer writing of the period. Far from a lukewarm socialist in his youth who later became a middlebrow bourgeois figure in gay literature, Isherwood offers a queer Marxist contribution to radical literary history; reading him through Tretiakov reveals, moreover, a striking cultural-historical possibility: the queer potential of the First Five-Year Plan (1928–32).
Reading Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories (1935–39) through an important debate in the Marxist aesthetics of the period between Sergei Tretiakov and Georg Lukács, this article argues that Isherwood’s famous statement “I am a camera” should be reimagined as a declaration of radical antihumanism with key implications for both Marxist and queer theory. In so doing, it proposes that Isherwood’s literary praxis of self-instrumentalization advances a definition of the human that refuses both property ownership and heterosexual monogamy. In light of this new reading, Isherwood’s place in the leftist and queer canons must be reconstituted, as should the relationship between certain strains of Soviet Marxism and queer writing of the period. Far from a lukewarm socialist in his youth who later became a middlebrow bourgeois figure in gay literature, Isherwood offers a queer Marxist contribution to radical literary history; reading him through Tretiakov reveals, moreover, a striking cultural-historical possibility: the queer potential of the First Five-Year Plan (1928–32).
Bertolt Brecht's epic theory consists of formal and ideological elements. These two elements are indivisible because Epic Theatre represents the changing social and political circumstances with the help of changing dramatic conventions. Both formal and ideological elements are used in Brecht's Alienation Effect to minimize the emotional involvement of the audience. Brecht demanded the audience be intellectually involved with the play so as to receive the social and political messages in the play. Bertolt Brecht was not the first to use the Epic tradition, and to be sure he was not the last. Caryl Churchill, one of the most successful woman playwrights in Britain, is one of the practitioners of Epic Theatre. Churchill is mostly known for her feminist plays, but in her plays -just like Brecht's-she combines her ideological commitment with theatrical experimentation. In 1990, only months after Ceauşescu had been deposed, Churchill visited Romania with some students from a London theatre school. Their experiences there resulted in her play, Mad Forest. This paper will be an analysis of Churchill's use of the Alienation Effect through Epic conventions in her Mad Forest. Churchill, to avoid the emotional involvement of the audience and to make them aware of the theatricality of what they see, creates the Alienation Effect through her use of setting, plot structure, characterization, and theatrical instruments. Keywords: Alienation Effect, Epic Theatre, Caryl Churchill, Bertolt BrechtÖz: Bertolt Brecht'in epik kuramı biçimsel ve ideolojik elementlerden meydana gelmektedir. Bu ikisi birbirinden ayrılamaz çünkü epik tiyatro değişen siyasi ve toplumsal koşulları değişen drama gelenekleriyle temsil etmektedir. Hem biçimsel hem ideolojik elementler izleyicinin oyuna duygusal katılımını en aza indirgemek amacıyla Brecht'in yabancılaştırma etkisiyle birlikte kullanılır. Brecht tiyatro izleyicisinin oyuna siyasi ve toplumsal mesajları alabilmesi için yalnızca düşünsel katılımını hedefler. Epik tiyatro geleneğinde Brecht ne ilktir ne de son. İngiltere'nin en iyi kadın oyun yazarlarından Caryl Churchill de epik tiyatronun uygulayıcılarından biridir. Churchill esasen feminist oyunlarıyla bilinir, ancak Brecht gibi o da oyunlarında ideolojik bağlılıklarını teatral deneyselciliğiyle birleştirir. Yazar, 1990'da Çavu-şesku'nun görevden alınmasından sadece aylar sonra Londra'da bir tiyatro okulundan öğrencilerle Romanya'yı ziyaret eder. Oradaki deneyimleri Deli Orman oyunuyla neticelenir. Bu makale Churchill'in epik gelenekler vesilesiyle Brecht'in yabancılaştırma etkisini Deli Orman oyununda nasıl yarattığını irdelemektedir. İzleyicilerin oyuna duygusal katılımı yerine gördüklerinin kurgusallığının farkında olmalarını isteyen Churchill, kullandığı olay yeri, olay örgüsü, kişi tasvirleri ve teatral araçlarla yabancılaş-tırma etkisi yaratır.
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