Lessons from Brecht: a Brechtian approach to drama, texts and education[1]

Franks, Anton; Jones, Ken

doi:10.1080/1356978990040203

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…This portrayed reality, and with it the self, as fragmented, constructed and ultimately changeable. Brecht's aesthetic orientation towards theatre is imbued with a sociological and pedagogical view (Franks & Jones, 1999;Otty, 1995) but does not lose sight of its entertainment role either. Brecht tells us (Brecht & Willett, 1964, pp.…”

Section: Brechtian Theatre Pedagogymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the UK, Brecht's theatre pedagogy influenced various educational drama approaches (Cabral, 1996;Eriksson, 2011;Winston, 1996). It found application in various higher education contexts and was for example used to investigate existing educational conceptualisations in higher education curricula (Franks & Jones, 1999;Otty, 1995). Mumford and Phipps (2002) employed Brechtian pedagogy as a framework to explore the complex acts of translation, pedagogy and cultural transfer when staging a bi-lingual German Volksstück (folk play) in an intercultural context.…”

Section: Brechtian Theatre Pedagogymentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Brechtian theatre pedagogy for intercultural education research

Frimberger

2016

Language and Intercultural Communication

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The following article explores the potential of Bertolt Brecht's theatre pedagogy for intercultural education research. It is argued that Brecht's pedagogical views on theatre connect to those interculturalists who prioritise the embodied dimensions of intercultural encounters over a competence-driven orientation. Both share a love for aesthetic experimentation as the basis for learning and critical engagement with a complex world. The article outlines how a Brechtian theatre pedagogy was enacted as part of four drama-based research workshops, which were designed to explore international students' intercultural 'strangeness' experiences. It is described how a participant account of an intercultural encounter was turned into a Brechtian playscript by the author and then performed by participants. The analysis is based on the author's as well as the performers' reflections on the scripting process and their performance experiences. It is argued that a Brechtian pedagogy can lead to collective learning experiences, critical reflection and an embodied understanding of intercultural experience in research. The data produced by a Brechtian research pedagogy is considered 'slippery' (aesthetic) data. It is full of metaphoric gaps and suitably resonates the affective dimensions and subjective positionings that constitute intercultural encounters.

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Section: Brechtian Theatre Pedagogymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Brechtian Theatre Pedagogymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Brechtian theatre pedagogy for intercultural education research

Frimberger

2016

Language and Intercultural Communication

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“…The democratic and participatory exercise not only reviewed and visualized the plot of the film for the participants, it also promoted reflection on the plot and its emphases as something constructed and not necessarily natural or given. Moreover, in line with Brecht's aesthetic strategy of montage, the exercise broke down the film into separate parts that called attention to the film's form (Franks & Jones, , p. 195–6).…”

Section: Brecht's Theater Praxis As An Approach To Das Leben Der Anderenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching Resistance to Narrative: Brecht's Theater Praxis as a Response to Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck'sDas Leben der Anderen

Koerner

2016

Die Unterrichtspraxis

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This article explores the potential of Brecht's theater praxis for teaching millennial students to question dramatic narratives and rethink their own spectatorial positions, especially in regards to mainstream cinema that emphasizes character identification and plot. The article reflects on a five‐day teaching unit on Brecht's theater in a senior level German course that began and ended with Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's Das Leben der Anderen, a film that appropriates Brecht within an aesthetics Einfühlung. The first section makes the unusual case for organizing a unit on Brecht's theater praxis around Das Leben der Anderen describes how the aesthetic program presented in the film offers an ideal foil for Brecht's theater. The second segment describes how the class applied Brecht's theories and theater strategies to the film by reducing the plot to a six‐scene fable, constructing tableaux that summarized each scene, and inserting V‐Effekte with critical commentaries on the film. In closing, I discuss the results of students’ writing assignments and in‐class theater work as well as their feedback on the unit, and I make an argument for teaching theater as a hypermedium that can encourage students to explore different modes of thinking and interrogate the ways in which their own media consumption has trained them to perceive.

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“…What they observe is only a representation of the reality. This technique maintains estrangement affect by interrupting the flow of action (Franks & Jones, 1999). They tell the audience what is going to happen throughout the scene in advance in an informative tone.…”

Section: Structural Tracesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconsidering Brechtian elements in process drama

Uştuk

2015

Ankara Üniversitesi Eğitim Bilimleri Fakültesi Dergisi

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ABSTRACT. It is known that process drama is parallel to non-Aristotelian structure of Brecht's epic theatre in certain ways. Techniques and structure as the elements of these two notions (O'Neill's process drama and Brecht's epic theatre) resemble to each other not only by the usage and also by the relationship between the process and the participants as well. Brecht intended to engage actively with the audience and makes them engage with the play critically; similarly in process drama structures, participants are actively engaged with the material and the theme of the work. Moreover, in process drama, participants are assigned as meaning-makers throughout the process since they actively shouldered the role of writer, director, actor/actress and the audience. This quality lets them engage with the process in ways that are not only aesthetic but also critical and purposeful. Thus, there are also some elements that Brechtian plays and O'Neill's structures may share but they are included with different intentions. Taking all the similarities and differences that can be referred from texts into consideration, it can be suggested that further discussion is needed to reveal the dichotomy. This paper intends to build a direct link between drama in education and theatre and to explain this link from a structural point of view by comparing and contrasting examples from plays of Brecht and process drama sessions of O'Neill.

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Lessons from Brecht: a Brechtian approach to drama, texts and education[1]

Cited by 12 publications

References 6 publications

A Brechtian theatre pedagogy for intercultural education research

A Brechtian theatre pedagogy for intercultural education research

Teaching Resistance to Narrative: Brecht's Theater Praxis as a Response to Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck'sDas Leben der Anderen

Reconsidering Brechtian elements in process drama

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