Brecht Between Mediums

Abstract

University of Washington Abstract Brecht Between Mediums Kristin M. Seifert Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Stefka Mihaylova Department of Drama Is Epic theory solely applicable to live performance? Was German writer and director Bertolt Brecht a champion for the theatre and theatre alone? This dissertation combines analysis of live and recorded performance, historical analysis, Epic theory, film and media theory in order to discuss Brecht’s shifting relationship with film and other multi-medium performance traditions. The historic and theoretical exploration of Brecht both influencing and being influenced by cinematic work seeks to reclaim him as a multi-medium artist and explore a kind of continual flow of Epic theory and technique not merely between Brecht’s cinematic and stage projects but also in the work of his contemporaries, fellow exiled artists during WWII, and a direct line of cinematic careers shaped, to this day, by the Brechtian legacy. The larger scope of this case study questions the allocation of artists, like Brecht, into disciplines and troubles the existing medium-disciplinary hierarchies-separations that negatively affect the ways in which performance is created, viewed and studied. This dissertation, therefore, more broadly examines the segregation of the performing arts within the academic world and scholarly research that maintains a staunchly medium-specific approach that fails to recognize the endless stream of theories and methods that circulate between performance mediums.