Abstract
This paper offers a Marxist reading of Bertolt Brecht’s The Trial of Lucullus, demonstrating how Brecht’s dramaturgical theory of epic theatre and his Marxism enhance each other’s effect in an artistic way. The play, which dramatizes the posthumous trial of the Roman general Lucullus in the underworld, is analysed through several tenets of Marxism including class struggle, ideology, commodity fetishism, and the concept of usefulness. The paper argues that Brecht’s verfremdungs effekt (estrangement) is the inevitable result of his Marxism, and that the play serves as a work of resistance against capitalist or bourgeois culture.
Keywords: Brecht, Marxism, The Trial of Lucullus, epic theatre, estrangement, ideology, class struggle
Introduction
Wars usually entail great revolutions in scientific and literary fields, and the Second World War is no exception. For Brecht, the great German author and critic who lived within the context of war, the policy toward Hitler’s massacre was not an escapist one. Rather, some of his plays reflect the socioeconomic and political pressure imposed on people. One of his plays, The Trial of Lucullus, best represents this pressure. In his article, “‘Yes to Nothingness’”, Obermayer discusses this play as a reaction against Hitler’s regime in invasion of some European countries.
Martin Esslin in his book Brecht: A Choice of Evils mentions the way Brecht thinks of drama, as mainly didactic. Furthermore he explains Brecht’s theory of epic theatre as it is put against Aristotelian drama in its being mechanical. What he meant by mechanical is the devices in the play that constantly remind the reader that he is reading a play; thus he should avoid identification with the characters, that is called “verfremdungs effekt” or estrangement, and he should remain like a conscious critic.
Brecht and Marxism
What makes the Marxist approach to his works easier is the fact that for Brecht the mere reaction to the exploitations of the fascist regime was not enough. In other words, he thought of a work of art not only as having aesthetic features but as bringing about some sort of practicality and use. As Tyson explains in Critical Theory Today, Marxism respects the practical nature of any ideology. Brecht’s theory of the epic theatre is the inevitable result of his Marxism.
Such simplicity may be the effect of the fact that Brecht only insists on the base/superstructure distinction as Terry Eagleton asserts in his Ideology: An Introduction. Although Eagleton as the representative of so many other Marxists underestimates Brecht’s vulgar Marxism, the field of western Marxism itself is replete with contradictions that emerge in the works of its well-known practitioners.
The Marxist Approach to the Play
The play starts with the funeral of the great general of Rome, Lucullus, who as people say conquered many countries of Asia and brought honor for the people of Rome. As the leader of a class-based society Lucullus had to find a way so as to confirm his position and that of his very class. According to Marxists, the best way to keep people calm and obedient is making their minds occupied with ideology.
The trial is not a religious one and for the people who sit on the high bench what counts most is usefulness. Lucullus, for whom seven kings waited, should wait up with common people until his turn comes. The fragmentary nature of the play is particularly significant. At certain points the dialogues are interrupted by the chorus, Herald and a variety of voices.
In fact Brecht sacrifices beauty in order to achieve his famous verfremdungs effekt. In his Literary Theory, Terry Eagleton considers this effect as having “political ends” in that it “defamiliarizes” or “denaturalizes the political society” to make us as readers suspicious of anything which seems natural to us.
The frieze as a kind of commodity indicates a loop-back in the capitalist societies. For the living Lucullus it is a symbol of honor achieved in battlefields. It is, on the other hand, the representative of imposing war on the people who are mostly afflicted with poverty. The significance of commodity is based on Marx’s idea of “fetishism” according to which “commodities” own a lively essence.
With Lucullus the trial is so long since his only use for the people is putting them under so much pressure. When the shadows of the frieze come to life to speak of his acts, they are asked one by one by the jurymen so as to explain their knowledge of Lucullus. The cause of any war according to Brecht is not Patriotism or honor which compromise only the surface structure, rather it is poverty.
Conclusion
Finally like a chain reaction, the alienation caused by the fragmentary structure and setting, avoids any emotional involvement with the protagonist. Rather it invites the reader to look at the play from the critical perspective. The Marxists then insist on the consciousness of the audience who should try to form a judgment on the play. In the course of the play we never sympathize with Lucullus as if we are the jurymen of his trial. Lucullus’s social class as the ideological greatness does not let him to Elysian Fields since Marxism requires utility rather than false grandeur. We may conclude that Verfremdungs effekt is created after this philosophy of utility or praxis implying the didactic uses of a play.
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