Brecht, Benjamin, Lukács, Adorno: Towards a revolutionary Aesthetics
Dr Helmut Schmitz, Spring Term, Mo 5-7pm, Room tbc.
Seminar
1
Benjamin: ‘The Work of Art in the Age of its mechanical
Reproducibility’, from Illuminations
2
Benjamin: ‘The Work of Art in the Age of its mechanical
Reproducibility’
3
Benjamin: ‘On some Motifs in Baudelaire, from Illuminations
4
Benjamin: ‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’, from Illuminations
5
Benjamin, ‘The Author as Producer’ and ‘What is Epic Theatre? First
Version’ from Understanding Brecht
6
Brecht: St.Joan of the Stockyards, excerpts from Brecht on Theatre
7
Brecht: Mother Courage, A short Organum for the Theatre from Brecht on
Theatre, pp. 179-205.
8
Lukács: ‘Realism in the Balance’, Brecht: ‘Against Lukács’
(from Aesthetics & Politics)
9
Adorno: ‘Reconciliation under Duress’ and ‘Commitment’
(from Aesthetics & Politics)
10
Adorno: ‘Cultural Criticism and Society’, poems by Paul Celan (copies
provided)
Reading List
Walter Benjamin:
Illuminations, London, Pimlico, 1999
Understanding Brecht, London, Verso, 1998
Aesthetics & Politics
London, Verso, 1980
Bertolt Brecht:
Brecht on Theatre (ed. John Willett), London, Methuen,
1978
St Joan of the Stockyards, NY, Arcade, 1998
Mother Courage and her Children, London, Methuen,
1988
Essential Readings from Brecht on Theatre:
‘The Epic Theatre and its Difficulties’, ‘On Form and Subject Matter’, ‘The Modern Theatre is
the Epic Theatre’, ‘The Question of Criteria for Judging Acting’,
‘Theatre for Pleasure or theatre for Instruction’, ‘On the Use of Music in an Epic Theatre’, ‘The
Street Scene’, ‘On experimental Theatre’, ‘A Short Organum for the Theatre’
h.schmitz@warwick.ac.uk, H210
Sept 2011
Useful Websites:
http://www.marxists.org/
holds a huge internet archive of material philosophy with many full primary and
reference texts for e.g.
Walter Benjamin:
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm
Theodoer W.Adorno: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/adorno/index.htm
Georg Lukàcz: http://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/index.htm
Karl Marx: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/
Karl Korsch (teacher of Brecht & author of Marxism and Philosophy):
http://www.marxists.org/archive/korsch/index.htm
Website of Walter Benjamin Research Syndicate
http://www.wbenjamin.org/index.html
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a good entry on Adorno incl. bibliography:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/adorno/
Critial Theory Project:
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/Illumina%20Folder/index.htm