The alienation effect in German epic theater is achieved not only through the actors, but also through music (chorus and song) andsets (transparencies, film strips, etc.). Its main purpose is to place the staged events in their historical context.
BERTOLT BRECHTWe attacked a foreign people and treated them like rebels. As you know, it’s all right to treat barbarians barbarically. It’s the desire to be barbaric that makes governments call their enemies barbarians.
More Bertolt Brecht Quotes
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The rain Never falls upwards. When the wound Stops hurting What hurts is The scar.
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Don’t tell me peace has broken out.
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All artforms are in the service of the greatest of all arts: the art of living.
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Those who have had no share in the good fortunes of the mighty Often have a share in their misfortunes.
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Who does Not Know the Truth, is simply a Fool… Yet who Knows the Truth and Calls it a Lie, is a Criminal.
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First the grub, then the morals.
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Some party hack decreed that the people had lost the government’s confidence and could only regain it with redoubled effort. If that is the case, would it not be simpler, If the government simply dissolved the people And elected another?
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The war which is coming Is not the first one. There were Other wars before it. When the last one came to an end There were conquerors and conquered. Among the conquered the common people Starved. Among the conquerors The common people starved too.
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When the house of a great one collapses Many little ones are slain.
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Writers can’t write as fast as governments make wars; because to write demands thinking.
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A good soldier has his heart and soul in it. When he receives an order, he gets a hard on, and when he drives his lance through his enemy’s guts, he comes.
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General, your bomber is powerful. It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant. But it has one defect: It needs a mechanic. General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think.
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For art to be ‘unpolitical’ means only to ally itself with the ‘ruling’ group.
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Sin is what is new, strong, surprising, strange. The theatre must take an interest in sin if the young are to be able to go there.
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The human race tends to remember the abuses to which it has been subjected rather than the endearments. What’s left of kisses? Wounds, however, leave scars.
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