Bertolt Brecht and the David Fragments (1919-1921): An Interdisciplinary Study
Ebook
This volume offers an examination of Brecht's largely forgotten theatrical fragments of a life of David, written just after the Great War but prior to Brecht winning the Kleist Prize in 1922 and the acclaim that would launch his
extraordinary career. David J. Shepherd and Nicholas E. Johnson take as their starting point Brecht's own diaries from the time, which offer a vivid picture of the young Brecht shuttling between Munich and the family home in Augsburg, surrounded by friends, torn between women, desperate for success, and all the while with 'David on the brain'.
The analysis of Brecht's David, along with his notebooks and diaries, reveals significant connections between the reception of the Biblical David and one of Germany's most tumultuous cultural periods. Drawing on theatrical experiments conducted with an ensemble from Trinity College Dublin, this volume includes the first ever translation of the David fragments in English, an extensive discussion of the theatrical afterlife of David in the early twentieth century as well as new interdisciplinary insights into the early Brecht: a writer entranced by the biblical David and utterly committed to translating the biblical tradition into his own evolving theatrical idiom.
An interdisciplinary investigation of the young Brecht's dramatic interpretation of David in the context of his life after the war, his later work and the theatrical currents of the early twentieth century.
The first English publication of Brecht's David Fragments
Interdisciplinary analysis by biblical scholars and drama scholars, based on study of primary sources and on live theatrical experiments with ensemble
Considers the cultural impact of the bible in the 1920s and on Brecht's life
List of photographs
List of tables
Acknowledgments
A note on the text
List of abbreviations
Introduction: Brecht's David fragments
Chapter 1: The David fragments in translation
Chapter 2: Brecht's David and the biblical David – Uriah, Bathsheba, Absalom and Jesse
Chapter 3: Brecht's David and the biblical David – Jonathan, Saul and David
Chapter 4: Brecht's David and other adaptations – Feuchtwanger, Zarek and Gide
Chapter 5: The David fragments in practice and performance
Concluding reflections: after David
Bibliography
Index of biblical sources
Index of subjects
Index of authors
Besides contributing to Brecht, theatre, translation, biblical and reception studies-both Brechtian and biblical-this book offers a model for collaborative research.
- Title: Bertolt Brecht and the David Fragments (1919-1921): An Interdisciplinary Study
- Authors: David J. Shepherd, Nicholas E. Johnson
- Publisher: T&T Clark
- Print Publication Date: 2020
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9780567685674, 9780567704832, 0567704831, 0567685675
- Resource ID: LLS:9780567685674
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-05-12T04:09:24Z
David Shepherd is Assistant Professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Nicholas E. Johnson is Assistant Professor of Drama at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.