Thesis (B.A.Hons. 1973) from the Dept. of German, University of Adelaide.

Georg Büchner, an anomaly in his own century, is frequently viewed as a percursor of Expressionism. With this fact in mind it is the purpose of this thesis to investigate and compare Büchner's Woyzeck and the expressionistic drama Hinkemann by Ernst Toller, noting the same basic theme which, however, gives rise to dissimular solutions. The method of investigating these analogous dramas was essentially one of research into and interpretation of the primary sources. Secondary sources (which were numerous for Büchner but scarce for Toller) were consulted as an aid in the exposition of Woyzeck and Hinkemann as separate plays. There was, however, practically no secondary material available relating directly to the problem under discussion in this work. The conclusions reached were based on private examination of the two dramas. Woyzeck is a poor soldier of the 19th century. Out of love for his "wife" he allows himself to be used as subject for a doctor's scientific experiments. Despite Woyzeck's care and passionate love for her, Marie succumbs to the desires of the sensual drum major. Thus Woyzeck not only experiences physical abuse, but also mental anguish as a result of Marie's infidelity. Through this lonely, senseless suffering his values are put into question. Woyzeck despairs of life and expresses his total rejection of the world by murdering Marie and then by drowning himself. Hinkemann, also a common soldier, returns home from the First World War emasculated by a bullet. Fearing the loss of his wife's love and respect, he too stoops to the level of an animal to compensate for his sexual incapacity. Desiring to provide her a few pleasures, Hinkemann hires himself out to a showman who utilises him in a repulsive circus act. However, his sensual wife, like Marie, also proves unfaithful. Her seducer, Grosshahn, causes Hinkemann's prime suffering by causing him to believe that Grete laughed at him in his debased condition. Although finally convinced that she did not laugh, Hinkemann, like his counterpart Woyzeck, fails to see any good purpose in the world and gives up. He no longer has the strength to struggle and asks his wife to leave him. But Grete, afraid to live alone, commits suicide. Hinkemann goes on existing. Thus the basic pattern is the same in both: Woyzeck and Hinkemann, two soldiers in the prime of life, allow themselves to be misused for the sake of a woman's love. Both lose this love which alone gives, their life meaning. Forced into total isolation by an evil and loveless world, both Woyzeck and Hinkemann no longer see any purpose in life, but the reaction of each is different. Woyzeck reacts violently to this discovery of the lack of good purpose in the universe. Out of vengeance he wants to hurt the world that has hurt him. He ends in complete, active nihilism. Hinkemann, a man weakened by fate, reacts less violently: he comes to a passive acceptance of meaninglessness in the world. For him, struggle is in vain. Thus there is a difference in solution, resulting from an important distinction which lies at the core of these plays. Büchner here deals with one basic theme: isolation ultimately leading to nihilism. Toller, in addition, deals with the problem of the complete man. The loss of either the animal or the spiritual aspect of man's nature renders him ridiculous. And for Toller, it is this ridicule which isolates man. Thus his play is more complex, it has ramifications of the problem which Büchner does not explore. Also contributing to the dissimilar solutions are the authors' different views of life. Woyzeck's nihilistic end is entirely in consonance with Büchner's fatalistic and utterly hopeless view of life. Similarly, Hinkemann's pessimistic resignation corresponds to Toller's poignant disillusionment (but not complete despair) with mankind. / Arts, Faculty of / Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of / Graduate

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Este trabalho analisa a recepção de Georg Büchner (1813-1837) por Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) enfocando a sua fase criativa inicial. Especificamente analisa-se a abordagem da recepção do drama Woyzeck em Tambores na Noite e da narrativa Lenz, de Büchner, em Baal de Brecht. As duas obras de Büchner, como a maior parte de seus trabalhos, foram publicadas postumamente: Lenz, em 1837, e Woyzeck, em 1878. Esta última estreou em 1913. A obra do autor, quase desconhecida em sua época, encontrou ressonância no Realismo e no Naturalismo, mas o auge da recepção se deu na virada do século XIX para o XX, com a Modernidade e os expressionistas. A presente análise investiga a repercussão de Woyzeck e de Lenz como formas específicas da recepção de Büchner por Brecht. Os dois escritores são importantes por refletirem posições críticas quanto à política e quanto ao ideário de suas épocas, na Alemanha. Brecht usou ambas as obras de Büchner como inspiração para pôr em evidência a posição do indivíduo frente a uma época em decadência, que se caracteriza ademais pela política autoritária na Alemanha, bem como pela falta de liberdade individual. A análise baseia-se na pesquisa hermenêutica de Hans Gadamer e nas premissas acerca da estética da recepção de Hans Robert Jauss. Partindo da estética da recepção, os dramas Tambores na Noite e Baal são examinados quanto à sua intertextualidade com o drama Woyzeck e a narrativa Lenz de Büchner, com auxílio de reflexões elaboradas por Broich e Pfister, num método que permite analisar as relações históricas e textuais entre obras literárias. Neste trabalho, procuramos estabelecer uma relação intertextual direta entre Woyzeck e Tambores na Noite e também entre Lenz e Baal, algo negligenciado na pesquisa literária até o presente momento. / This work analyzes the reception of Georg Büchner (1813-1837) by Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), focusing Brechts initial creative phase. In particular, the reception of the drama Woyzeck in Drums in the Night and of the novel Lenz, from Büchner, in Baal, from Brecht, is analyzed. Both works of Büchner, as is also the case for the majority of his remaining texts, were published posthumously: Lenz, in 1837, and Woyzeck, in 1878; the drama had its premiere only in November 1913. His works, close to unknown at his time, obtained some resonance in realism and in naturalism but the peak of the reception of his works occurred only in the beginning of the XXth century, with modernism and the expressionists. The present analysis investigates the impact of Woyzeck and Lenz and the specific form of Brechts reception of Büchner. Both these authors are important since they reflect critical positions within the political and ideological scenarios of their times, in Germany. Brecht used both works from Büchner as inspiration to put in evidence the position of the individual in a time of decadence, which, moreover was characterized by an authoritarian and repressive politics in Germany, as well as the lack of individual freedom. This analysis is based in the literary hermeneutics of Hans Gadamer, and the premises of the reader-response criticism of Hans Robert Jauss. The dramas Drums in the Night and Baal are examined taking into account the intertextuality with the drama Woyzeck and narrative Lenz of Büchner, with the help of reflections elaborated by Broich and Pfister, a method which allows to clarify the historic and textual relations of literary works. In this thesis we attempt to establish a direct intertextual relation between the dramas Woyzeck and Drums in the Night and also of Lenz and Baal, which had not been previously identified in literary research up to now.

Este trabalho analisa a recepção de Georg Büchner (1813-1837) por Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) enfocando a sua fase criativa inicial. Especificamente analisa-se a abordagem da recepção do drama Woyzeck em Tambores na Noite e da narrativa Lenz, de Büchner, em Baal de Brecht. As duas obras de Büchner, como a maior parte de seus trabalhos, foram publicadas postumamente: Lenz, em 1837, e Woyzeck, em 1878. Esta última estreou em 1913. A obra do autor, quase desconhecida em sua época, encontrou ressonância no Realismo e no Naturalismo, mas o auge da recepção se deu na virada do século XIX para o XX, com a Modernidade e os expressionistas. A presente análise investiga a repercussão de Woyzeck e de Lenz como formas específicas da recepção de Büchner por Brecht. Os dois escritores são importantes por refletirem posições críticas quanto à política e quanto ao ideário de suas épocas, na Alemanha. Brecht usou ambas as obras de Büchner como inspiração para pôr em evidência a posição do indivíduo frente a uma época em decadência, que se caracteriza ademais pela política autoritária na Alemanha, bem como pela falta de liberdade individual. A análise baseia-se na pesquisa hermenêutica de Hans Gadamer e nas premissas acerca da estética da recepção de Hans Robert Jauss. Partindo da estética da recepção, os dramas Tambores na Noite e Baal são examinados quanto à sua intertextualidade com o drama Woyzeck e a narrativa Lenz de Büchner, com auxílio de reflexões elaboradas por Broich e Pfister, num método que permite analisar as relações históricas e textuais entre obras literárias. Neste trabalho, procuramos estabelecer uma relação intertextual direta entre Woyzeck e Tambores na Noite e também entre Lenz e Baal, algo negligenciado na pesquisa literária até o presente momento. / This work analyzes the reception of Georg Büchner (1813-1837) by Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), focusing Brechts initial creative phase. In particular, the reception of the drama Woyzeck in Drums in the Night and of the novel Lenz, from Büchner, in Baal, from Brecht, is analyzed. Both works of Büchner, as is also the case for the majority of his remaining texts, were published posthumously: Lenz, in 1837, and Woyzeck, in 1878; the drama had its premiere only in November 1913. His works, close to unknown at his time, obtained some resonance in realism and in naturalism but the peak of the reception of his works occurred only in the beginning of the XXth century, with modernism and the expressionists. The present analysis investigates the impact of Woyzeck and Lenz and the specific form of Brechts reception of Büchner. Both these authors are important since they reflect critical positions within the political and ideological scenarios of their times, in Germany. Brecht used both works from Büchner as inspiration to put in evidence the position of the individual in a time of decadence, which, moreover was characterized by an authoritarian and repressive politics in Germany, as well as the lack of individual freedom. This analysis is based in the literary hermeneutics of Hans Gadamer, and the premises of the reader-response criticism of Hans Robert Jauss. The dramas Drums in the Night and Baal are examined taking into account the intertextuality with the drama Woyzeck and narrative Lenz of Büchner, with the help of reflections elaborated by Broich and Pfister, a method which allows to clarify the historic and textual relations of literary works. In this thesis we attempt to establish a direct intertextual relation between the dramas Woyzeck and Drums in the Night and also of Lenz and Baal, which had not been previously identified in literary research up to now.

Si un texte ne peut être blessé comme l’est un corps, une lecture peut effectivement avoir cet effet blessant qui se porte sur le corps textuel, et sur celui de la personne qui lit. Le remède s’incarnera autant dans la langue que dans l’attention – comme prélude, et forme de soin – portée à l’humain. Le théâtre et ses scènes sont depuis longtemps le lieu où est accomplie la guérison, à l’aide du langage et des gestes : lieux où les regards médical et littéraire mettent en œuvre leurs méthodes interprétatives respectives. À partir du personnage Woyzeck dans la pièce éponyme (1836) de Georg Büchner, seront comparées ces perspectives de lecture en contexte de soin. Woyzeck, lui-même un patient, vu les troubles indicibles qui l’animent, devient malgré lui la scène d’expérimentations médicales et de jeux de pouvoir qui le rendent de plus en plus « illisible », à lui-même et à qui le lit. Le présent travail est consacré au rôle du lectorat dans le processus herméneutique et sur la valeur que sa résistance à une interprétation pathologisante – qui ne cherche pas de symptômes dans le texte – peut apporter au récit, et au remède. La forme même de la pièce fragmentaire rapproche la position de Woyzeck de celle du lectorat, condamnant ce dernier à errer d’une scène à l’autre, comme le personnage accablé de visions insensées. À chaque lecture le choix s’impose soit de faire avec l’incomplétude du texte, posture nécessaire à l’interprétation littéraire, ou d’en diagnostiquer les absences. Au premier chapitre, il est question du lien opéré par le corps malade comme médium premier qui relie les domaines médicaux et théâtraux : un survol historique de ce rapport vient le complexifier par l’exemple. Au deuxième chapitre, le corps malade et la scène sont considérés ensemble comme lieu de savoir, et le corps défini selon ce que ce lieu permet comme limites et possibilités. Enfin, le troisième chapitre expose l’exercice d’une lecture non-pathologique du cas Woyzeck – le personnage, le texte, les mises en scènes – afin de composer une interprétation qui prenne en compte les multiples langages inhérents au texte. L'hermétisme apparent de la pièce y est excavé en procédant depuis plusieurs perspectives. L’approche intermédiale qui sous-tend cette analyse, à travers la relation du théâtre avec le remède, permet d’éclairer la profondeur de l’influence de la pièce de Büchner sur l’histoire du théâtre, et de la lecture. / If a text cannot be injured as can the body, reading can effectively have an injurious effect that is carried by the text, and by the person who reads it. Its remedy is embodied as much in the language as in the attention – as a prelude, and form of care – carried to the human. Theatre and its stages have long been places of healing, through language and gesture: a place where medical and literary perspectives carry out their respective interpretative methods. From the character Woyzeck in Georg Büchner’s eponymous play (1836), a comparison of these reading perspectives is made in the context of care. Woyzeck, himself a patient, given his ineffable illnesses, becomes despite himself the stage of medical experiments and power games that rend him more and more unreadable, to himself and those who read him. The present study is dedicated to the role of the reader in the hermeneutic process and to the value that one’s resistance to a pathologizing interpretation – that does not look for symptoms in the text – can contribute to the story, and to the remedy. Even the fragmentary form of the play positions Woyzeck close that of the reader, condemning the latter to ramble from one scene to another, as the character who is afflicted with frantic visions. At each reading one must compose with the incompleteness of the text, a posture necessary for literary interpretation, or one must diagnose the gaps in the text. The first chapter concerns the link between the diseased body as the first medium that links the domains of medicine and theatre: a historic review of this link will complexify it through examples. In the second chapter, the diseased body and the stage are considered as a combined space of knowledge, and the body defined according to the limits and possibilities of this site. Finally, the third chapter presents a non-pathologic reading of the case of Woyzeck – the character, text, the staging – in order to compose an interpretation that considers the multiple languages inherent to the text. The apparent hermeticism of the play is excavated by proceeding from several perspectives. The intermedial approach underlying this analysis, through the relation between theatre and healing, illuminates the profound influence of the play of Büchner on the history of theatre, and of reading.

The topic of this thesis is Georg Büchner's fragmentary drama Woyzeck. At the beginning, the work presents the playwright's biography set in the historical context and his work. It continues with the circumstances of Woyzeck's origin, the plot summary, description of the language of the play and problems with edition and decoding the manuscripts. The next part talks about the different concepts of Woyzeck in Czech theatres and what the reactions of the audience and the critics were. The work also briefly deals with Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck, the libretto and the reaction of the Czech audience. The focus of this thesis are the translations into Czech, especially a detailed analysis and comparison of Rudolf Vápeník's and Ludvík Kundera's translations. The analysis is based on Katharina Reiß' translation analysis model. Only Kundera's translation was found to be a functional one, Vápeník's translation is - according to the author of the thesis - obsolete.

Le laboratoire Woyzeck propose une approche de l'oeuvre de Büchner en trois temps, ordonnée autour de la métaphore anatomique. L'écriture de Woyzeck prend la forme d'une autopsie, indissociable des travaux scientifiques de Büchner réalisés à la même période. Le premier chapitre évoque ce geste d'écriture incisif et sa réception. Un état des recherches permet de considérer les analyses philologiques et herméneutiques de l'oeuvre qui font aujourd'hui autorité. Sont ici rappelés les lieux communs de la critique et les interprétations marquantes de la pièce. Si leur validité est ensuite interrogée, leur valeur symptomatique est aussi prise en compte sur un autre plan. Le deuxième chapitre prend la forme d'un essai portant sur les personnages et les corps, objets de l'autopsie. Il explore autrement des hypothèses formulées dans le premier chapitre autour du langage et du fragment. Le lieu de cette autopsie, la scène, est abordé dans le troisième chapitre à travers les mises à l'épreuve scéniques. Les trois spectacles choisis adoptent des partis pris dramaturgiques distincts. Celui de Thomas Ostermeier se présente comme un atelier social; « le cirque des travailleurs » d'Àrpàd Schilling est une machine à jouer qui semble relever le pari du théâtre de la cruauté artaudien; Robert Wilson travaille de pair avec Tom Waits pour créer un spectacle musical qui fait figure de conte populaire universel et autoréférentiel. Parmi les enjeux de ces mises à l'épreuve figurent notamment le rapport au réel et au présent, ainsi que le regard porté sur les corps que le texte de Georg Büchner invite à questionner. Dans un esprit d'ouverture et de confluence, en adéquation avec les travaux de Büchner, cette réflexion puise autant dans des notions d'analyse théâtrale que dans l'esthétique et l'histoire de la médecine. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Woyzeck, Regard, Fragment, Mise en scène.

This master thesis of scenography is a study on the play Woyzeck written in 1836 by the German author Georg Büchner. My intention is to examine how the engaging story of a drama written in the 19th century, set into a military background, can be reinterpreted today in our society. The aim of my researches is the elaboration of a contemporary mise en scène of the play set into an ideological factory as the ideal scenario for the developing of the dramatic situations of Woyzeck. My final scenography proposal for the drama is a site-specific project in the Prada Foundation of Milan; an ex-factory of an Italian distillery society, now turned in one of the main art centres of the city. I am starting the thesis with a research about the historical background of the play through a short biography of the author. In this part, I am aiming to explain how the social context, the relationship with his family and a few of actual events happened at the time of Büchner, have inspired him to write, perhaps, his greatest work. I continue by writing an analysis of the dramaturgical structure of the text, of the main themes and situations within the play and the characters. I am highlighting the themes of the play that in the 21th century are extremely contemporary. In parallel, I analyse how the characters behave in different dramatic situations and precisely I try to reveal their real way of being instead of what appear only on the surfaces. Moreover, I write about a few of the greatest reinterpretations of the play that supported my studies and researches. Here, I mainly focus on the directing and dramaturgical aspects of each production that enriched my vision of the play helping me to develop my final version. The last part of my thesis is about my own reinterpretation of Woyzeck. I am explaining which are the aspects and the themes of the play that I find still very connected with our society. I write about my creative process and about how exactly my research led to the final proposal of the comparison between the military system, of two centuries ago, and the factory system of today. Afterward, I take in exam a few of the artworks that encouraged over my personal reinterpretation of directing and dramaturgical aspects. I write about how elements from these artworks inspired me concretely for the realization of my final work. Finally, I explain in details the directing and dramaturgical choices for the disposition of the storyboard as the final result of my personal research.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1985 F56 / Master of Arts