The comment has been made that Bertolt Brecht was an apostle of a reaction against individualism. This comment was made in light of Brecht's works.Seemingly a paradox arises when one considers Brecht's life and personality, because the characteristics of individualism are quite evident here. What then is the source of this apparent paradox?The main contributing factor seems to be the general confusion of the two terms individualism and individuality. The two are synonyms in English but are anonyms in a discussion of German cultural and political development. Because Brecht is a German, these terms should be applied to him as they are defined in German thought. When this is successfully accomplished, it becomes apparent that there is no conflict between Brecht's life and his works. Brecht merely described the system of individuality and its effects; he did not preach it. Therefore, it is highly incorrect to say that he worked against the system of individualism; he should more correctly be called an apostle of individualism.

This creative project has explored the principles of play production found in the theoretical works of Bertolt Brecht with the purpose of arriving at a specific production practice for the stage works of Brecht. That production practice was then tested in a production of Brecht's The Good Women of Setguan staged and directed by the researcher.Some of the research areas covered in the project are settings, lights, projections, live television, and sound. Acting and directing problems are reviewed with special attention given to problems which are unique to Brecht productions.Also included in the project are drawings and lighting plots for three settings considered for the play, an annotated production book with technical cues and blocking instructions, and a selection of photographs from the production.

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This thesis is based on the major plays of Bertolt Brecht; reference to his lyrics and critical writings is made where pertinent. The thesis examines the contradictions between Brecht's realistic assessment of human nature and his Marxist ideal of how man should be in order to change society. Brecht viewed society and the behaviour of the individual from two vantage points: the first was that of man who accepted society and conformed because he was concerned mostly with his own survival; the second was that of the Marxist critic, who claimed that the survival of the individual was unimportant, and that the traditional class structure had to be destroyed. Brecht pleaded idealistically for heroism and martyrdom in the service of the Marxist cause. On the other hand, he was sympathetic to the misfortunes of the common man, and realistically urged him to repudiate the necessity of heroic acts. Chapter I introduces the main problems of the thesis, and traces briefly their development throughout Brecht’s work. Chapter II discusses the problems of individualism in four of the "Erste Stϋcke". Man's search to discover his own values for existence ends in disappointment; his insistence on hedonistic and homosexual behaviour is a sign of his rejection of society and all traditional values. In only one of the works does the protagonist join society. The choice he has to make between security and revolution anticipates the dilemma of man in most of the later plays; he prefers conformity to individual freedom. The isolation of man, and the insufficiency of sensual pleasure reveal to the hedonists also that individualism is futile. The main characters in each of these plays are striking examples of Brecht’s experimentation with the figure of the anti-hero. Chapter III examines the implications of unheroic behaviour and capitulation in Mann ist Mann, and of conformity in Die Dreigroschenoper and Mahagonny. In the two operas, man is gradually forced to conform to the economic practices of bourgeois-capitalist society. In all three works, the individual's opportunism and willingness to capitulate to those in control, causes him to become evil and leads eventually to the dehumanizatlon of man. Chapter IV discusses Brecht’s insistence on the necessity of conformity to Marxist doctrine in the "Lehrstϋcke", Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe and Die Tage der Commune. The individual finds that the ethics of the communist collective compel him to become evil. These plays mark the beginning of the Marxist Brecht’s conflict with the poet of human nature. In his attempt to accept Marxist doctrine without reservation, Brecht had to force himself consciously to overlook the shortcomings of Marxist practice. These plays stress that man must replace his belief in personal integrity with an unyielding faith in the ethics of the collective. Consequently, he must refuse to help or pity the suffering, and deliberately resort to revolutionary violence. Chapter V investigates Brecht's contradictory views about heroism in a number of the plays of exile and the later "Bearbeitungen”. His greater fidelity to his knowledge of human nature, and to his sympathy for the common man generally prevailed over his desire to show that man would accept Marxist doctrine and sacrifice himself for the cause. Most of these plays present unheroic, finely observed individuals who prefer to settle for the small pleasures of life rather than resist oppression in order to seek freedom or justice. The plays of exile reveal a less dogmatic Brecht, but still one who never ceased to emphasize the need for social change. He avoided depicting contemporary social evils in these dramas, and showed those of all time. Chapter VI assesses the varying emphases and the contradictions of Brecht’s thought. The chapter concludes that although Brecht insisted from first to last on the necessity of man's unheroic behaviour, his individuals did become more humane. There was no progression in his ideas concerning how man was to survive in traditional society or how he might achieve social change. The plays since the “Lehrstϋcke” revealed a shifting of emphasis from the dehumanization of the individual to the necessity of man's accepting personal responsibility for the welfare of his fellows. The real progression of Brecht was not in his thought, but in his art, in his ability to depict human nature in conflict with the injustices of all ages and societies. / Arts, Faculty of / Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of / Graduate

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This thesis is the first to examine chronologically the earliest published versions of all the full-length plays wrilten by Bertolt Brecht in the years 1918-1929. The evidence of these early unrevised versions and of hitherto unpublished material throws new light on this first period of his career as a dramatist which is seen as being principally characterised by the lack of any attempt to resolve the conflicts in which these early plays abound. The analysis of these conflicts involves in the first place an examination of the antagonisms between characters and the tensions within the mind of individual characters. This study of motive and interaction draws attention to the co-existence of existential and social sources of conflict in these early dramasq and outlines the changing relative importance of existential and social factors in each of the plays under consideration. Whereas in Baal (1918), Im Dickicht (1922) and Leben Eiduards des Zweiten (1924) there is great emphasis on the existential dimension of conflict, Trommeln in der Nacht (1919)9 Mann ist Mann (1926) and Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (1929) pay more regard to its social significance. From the dates of these plays alone it is clear that to make such a distinction is to point to differences oI stress in individual plays rather than to a clear and straightforward development within the period under consideration. Howeverg allowing that existential and social factors continue to be of equal importance throughout the Twenties, a trend towards paying more attention to the social determinants of behaviour becomes apparent in works written from 1926 onwards. Brecht's presentation of conflict in these early plays is invariably ambivalent a fine balance being constantly maintained between the respective merits and negative aspects of different facets of conflict: vital enjoyment of struggle is offset by horror at the suffering caused, the claims of the transient individual clash with the demands of morality, the attractions of self-destruction vie with those of survival, the claims of passion with those of prudence. Formally, this ambivalence is reflected in the frequent mixture of comedy with tragedy, in sudden shifts from one stylistic level to another, and in the use of techniques of presentation, some of which encourage empathy with the characters, while others promote a more distanced attitude to events. The concluding chapter examines briefly the re-emergence of unresolved conflicts in plays written after Brecht's turn to Marxism.

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L'objectif de cette recherche est de comprendre La Décision de Bertolt Brecht par le biais de la lecture littéraire, telle que présentée dans les écrits de Bertrand Gervais. L'aporie, avec ses deux composantes que sont la contradiction et la dialectique, est identifiée comme une figure de lecture nécessaire à cette approche. La démarche aporétique d'Aristote et la dialectométhodologie de Stéphane Lupasco forment deux modalités permettant l'analyse contextuelle et l'interprétation textuelle de La Décision. Cette unique pièce de la Grande pédagogie est analysée grâce à trois couples antithétiques, soit collectif/individu, accord/désaccord et communisme/non-communisme, ce dernier couple portant aussi sur une version antérieure de la pièce. Cette recherche démontre la place ambiguë de La Décision au sein de l'œuvre brechtienne. Par ailleurs, l'étude des rapports texte/paratexte met en évidence l'influence contraire des choix éditoriaux allemands et français sur la réception du texte. Enfin, le discours esthétique et politique à la base de La Décision est déconstruit par la figure de l'aporie. En conclusion, la lecture littéraire ouvre sur une appropriation nouvelle. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : La Décision, Bertolt Brecht, Lecture littéraire, Aporie, Dialectométhodologie, Stéphane Lupasco, Bertrand Gervais.

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