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Understanding Brecht

WALTER BENJAMIN

nslated by nna ostock

ntroduction by Stanley itchell

vESO

londn · Nw Yok



This edion pubished by Verso 1998

©Veso 1998

First pblished as Versche fber Brech 1966

© Suhrkamp Verag 1966

ight reseved

he mor ighs of he athors/editors/ansators have been sserted

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iter

1sag e gane es neecue d a casseue en eu an pene cnscencee en e eus maces spuees ee eus cnns e puceu(R A M O N F E R N A N D E Z)

THE

AUTHOR

ASPRODUCER*

You will remember how Plato, in his project for aRepublic, deals with writers. In he interests of the community,he denies them the ght to dwell theren. ato had a high opinionof the power of iteraure. But he hought it harmful and superuous - in a pefc community, be it undestood. Since Plato, the

question of the s right to exist has not often been raised withhe same emphasis; today, however, it arses once more. Of courseit ony seldom arises in this m But all of you are more or lessconversant with it in a dierent fom hat of he queson of hewriter's autonomy: his freedom to wite ust what he pleases. Youare not inclined to gnt him this autonomy You believe that

he present social situation forces him to decide in whose serice hewshes to place his activity. The bourgeois auhor of entertainmentliterature does not acknowledge this choice You prove to him that,wthout admitting it, he is working in the service of cetain classinterests A progressive ype of writer does acknowledge this choiceHis decision is made upon the basis of he class struggle he placeshimsef on the side of the proletarat And hat's the end of his

* Add dlvd a Inu o Sudy o Facm Pa on27 Aprl '·



86

autonomy. He directs his activity towrds what will be usel tthe proletariat in the class struggle. This is usually caled pursuinga tenden, or 'commitment

Here you hae the key word around which a debate has beengoing on for a long time. You are familiar with it, and so you nowhow unfitful this debate has been. For the fact is that this debatehas neer got beyond a boing 'on-theone-hand, onthe-otherhand: n e one an one must demand the right tendency (or commitment) from a witers work, on e oe an one is entitled t

expect his work to be of a high quality This fomula is, of courseunsatisfactoy so long as we hae not understood the precise naturof the relationship which exists between the two factos commitment and quality. One can declare that a work which exhibits theright tendency need show no further quality. Or one can decree thaa work which exhibits the right tendency must, of necessity, showevery other quality as welL

This second formulation is not without interest; more it is correct I make it my own. But in doing so I refuse to decree it Thisassertion must bepove And it is for my attempt to proe it that Inow ask for your attention You may object that this is a therspecial indeed a farfetched subect. You may ask whether I hopeto adance the sudy of fascism with such a demonstation. That

is indeed my intention. For I hope to be able to show you that theconcept of commitment, in the pefunctoy fom in which it geneallyoccus in the debate I have just mentioned is a totally inadequateinstrment of political liteay criticism. I should like to demonstteto you that the tendency of a work of liteatre can be politicallycorect only if it is also coect in the litey sense That means

that the tendency which is politically correct includes a liteaytendency And let me add at once this liteay tendency, which isimplicitly or eplicitly included in evey correct political tendency,this and nothing else maes up the quality of a work It is becauseof this that the corect political tendency of a work etends also toits literary quality beuse a politica tendency which is correct

comprises a liteay tendency which is corect.I hope to be able to promise you that this assetion will presently



e Au a Pdue 8

com clarr For th mom allow m o ijc a couldha chon a dir poin o dparur or h conidraio wih o pu or you ga wih th uruiul da oncig

h rlaionhip wn h dcy ad h qualiy o lirarywork Thi argum i dicrdid and righly o. i rgardd aa ook xampl o an amp o dal wih lirary rlaionhipudialcically wih royp Bu wha i w ra h amprolm dialcically?

For h dialcical ram o thi prolm - ad now com

o h har o th mar - h rigid iolad ojc (work olook) i o o u whaor. mu inrd io h conxo liing ocial rlaio ou righly poin ou ha hi ha nudak im ad agai in h circl o our rind CrtainlyBu h dicuion ha o mod o dircly o largr iu andhror o ciy ha o drid ino agun Socialrlaio a w know ar drmid y producio rlaio dwhn mariali criicim approachd a work i ud o ak whawa h poiio o ha work -Y h ocial producion rlaio o i im Tha i a impora quio. Bu alo a rydicul on Th awr o i i o alway unquioal d hould now lik o propo a mor immdia quio or yourconidraio quion which i omwha mor mod which

go l r u which i m o m ad a r chanc oing awrd nad o akig wha i h poiion o a workv--v h produci rlaio o i im do i dwrih rlaio i i racioary or do i apir o orhrow hmi i roluioay? - iad o thi quio or a ay ra orhi quio hould lik o propo a dir o Bor ak

wha i a work poiio v-v h producio rlaio o i im hould lik o ak wha i i poiio w hm Thi quionconcr h uncion o a work witin h lirary producio rlaio o i im ohr word i i dircly cocrnd wh liraryeque

By mioing chniqu ha amd th cocp wich mak

lirary produc accil o immdia ocial ad hrormaiali aalyi am im h cocp o chniqu



88

represents e aectcal starnpnt frm wc te sterle ctmy f frm an cntent can be surmunte An furermre tscncept f tecnque cntans wtn tself an ncatn f te rt

way t etermne te relatnsp between tenency an qualywc was te ject f ur rnal nqury If ten we were enttle earler n t say tat te crrect pltcal tenency f a wrnclues ts lteray qaly because t nclues ts lterary tenencywe can nw am me precely t s lay enency maycnsst n a prressve evelpment f lteray tecnque r n a

reressve neIt wll surely meet wt yur apprval f, at s pnt an wtnly apparent ncnsequence, I t a set f entrely cncretelterary relatns tse f Russa I sul lke t ue yur attentn t Serey Tretyakv an t te ype f peratve wrter eenes an persnes Ts peratve wrter ers e mst palpable eample te functnal epenency wc always an n all

crcumstances ests beteen te crrect pltcal tenency an aprressve lteray tecnque Amttely t s nly ne eample Ireseve te rt t qute ters later n Treykv stnusesbetween te ertve an te nfrmatve wrter Te peratverters mssn s nt t reprt but t t nt t assume espectatrs rle but t ntervene actvely e enes ts mssn

wt te ata e supples abut s wn actvy Wen n 1928 nte per f ttal cllectvzatn f Russan arculture te slanWrters t te Cllectve Farm! was ssue Treyakv went t te'Cmmunst tuse cmmune an n te curse f prlne vsts unerst te fllwn actvtes calln massmeetns cllectn funs fr wnpayments n ractrs persua

n prvate farmers t n te cllecve farm nspectn reanrms launcn wall newspapers an rectn te cllectve farmnewspaper rprtn t Mscw newspapers ntrucn ratravelln lm sws etc t s nt surprsn tat te bk FeHeren ('Fel Cmmaners wc Tretyakv wrte fllwntese vsts s sa t ave eercse cnserable nuence n tesubsequent ranzn f cllectve rms

u may amre Treyakv an yet tnk tat s eample s nt



T Auor a Podur 89

particularly meaningful in this connection The tasks he undertook,you may obet, are hose of a joualist or propagandist; all hishas not much to do with literary creation Yet I quoted Tretya

kovs example deliberately in order to point out to you how widethe horizon has to be from which, in the light of the technicalrealities of our sitation today, we must rehink he notions ofliterayforms or genres if we are to nd forms appropriate to the literayenergy of our time Novels did not always eist in the past, nor mustthey necessarily always exist in the future nr, always, tragediesnor great epi; literary forms such as the commentary, the transla

tion, yes, even the pastiche, have not always eisted merely as minoreercises in the margin of literaure, but have had a place, not onlyin the philosophical but also the literary traditions of Arabia orChina. Rhetoric w not always a tiing form; on the contray, itleft an important mark on lae areas of ancient literature. All thisto familiarize you with the idea hat we are in the midst of a vast

process in which literary forms are being melted down, a process inwhich many of the contrasts in terms of which we have been accustomed to hink may lose their relevance Let me give an exampleof the unfruitlness of such contrasts and of the process of theirdialectical resolution. This will bring us once more to Tretyakov.For my eample is he newspaper

In our literature, wites an author of he Left,* 'contrasts hich,in happier epochs, used to fertilize one anoher have become insoluble antinomies Thus, science and blls lrs criticism andoriginal production culture and polii now stand apart from oneanother wthout connection or order of any kind The newspaper ishe arena of this literary consion. Its content eludes any form oforganization other than that which is imposed upon it by he readersimpatience And this impatience is not just the impatience of thepolitician waiting for information or that of he speculator waitingfor a tip-o: behind it smoulders the impatience of the outsider, heecluded man who yet believes he has a right to speak out in his owninterest. The editorial oces have long ago learned to eploit thefact that nothing binds the reader to his newspaper so much as this

* eam hme: f. Shre Fak, 1955 vol. I p 34.



90

mpnc whch dmnds fsh nushmn y dy hy p y cnnuy hwn pn nw cumns f dsusns pnns nd pss hus h unsc ssmn

f fcs s hnd n hnd wh n quy unsc ssmn fds wh s hmss d nsnnusy th nk fcspndns h s hw dcc fc hddn n hsstun h dcn f u n h us pss s pn h fu f s nn n h S pss F su ns n dh wh ss n dph s h dsncn

twn uh nd puc, whch h us pss mnns yc mns s nnn dspp n h S pss hd s wys ppd cm w n h sns f nn wh dscs pscs* As n p n n ny pcud phps u nywy n p n h sujc f th j hhppns n h ns ccss uhshp Wk sf pus

n wd And wn u wk mks up p f h sk ncssy pfm Auhy w s n n fundd n spcs nn u n pychnc n nd s cms cmmn ppty In wd h zn f n cndnscms wy f sumunn hws nsu nnms ndh pc wh h wds s ms dsd h s sy h nwspp cms h y pc wh scu pn

mundI hp h shwn y h fn h h w f h uh

s pduc mus h wy ck h pss huh hmp f h pss ny h S Russn pss w s hh s mndwn pcss f whch spk n ny dsysh cnnn spn n ns twn nd

p sch nd ppuz u h usns n h spn twn uh nd d h pss s h ms dcs pnf fnc f hs pcss nd h s why ny cnsdn f huh s pduc mus nd nd ncud h pss

Bu cnn sp h F s w knw h nwspp n

Benjamin akes play o word hee wt Scheibende (oe wo wtes),

Besheibnd (one wo decibes and Voscheiende (oe who pece(Tanslato's noe.



Th Auhor a rodur gz

Weste Euope does not yet epesent a valid instument of pouction in the wites hands. It still belongs to capital Since, on thene hand, the newspape is, techniclly speaking, the wites mostmpotant stategic position, and since, on the othe hand, thisposition is in the hands of the enemy, it should not suprise us if thewites attempt to undestnd his socially conditioned natue, histechnicl means nd his political task runs into the most temendousiculties. One of the decisive developments in Gemany duingthe last ten yes was that mny of he poductive minds, nde the

pessue of economic cicumstances, undewent a evolutionayevelopment in tems of thei mnaly wihout at the same timebeing le to think though in a eally evolutionay way the question of thei own wok, its elationship to the means of poductionnd its techniue As you see I am speaking of the so-clled leftintelligentsia and in so doing I popose to conne myself to the

bougeois left intelligentsia which, in Gemany, has been at theente of the impotant literary-politicl movements of the lastecde. I wsh to single out wo of these movements, Actiism andNew Objectivity (Nu Sahlhk) in ode to show by theixample that political commitment, howeve evolutionay it mayeem, functions in a counte-evolutionay way so long s the witexpeiences his solidaity with the poletiat only n mnd andnot as a poduce.

The slogan which sums up the claims of the Activist goup is"logoccy, o, tanslated into the veacula, the soveeigny ofmind. This is apt to be undestood as he ule of 'men of mind, ointellecuals; indeed he notion of 'men of mind has become accepted by the left-wing intelligentsia and dominates hei politil mani

festos, fom Heinich Mann to Dblin. Quite obviously this notionwas coined without any egad t the position of the intelligentsiin the poduction pocess Hille himself, the theoetician ofActivism, does no want the notion of 'men of mind to e undetod to mean 'membes of cetain pofessions but as epesentatives of a cetain chaacteological ype. Naully, this chaacteo

ogical ype occupies, s such, a position betwen the classes. Itincludes any numbe of pivate pesons without oeing the smallest



92

ass the anzatn nt a cectve When He mulateshs eectn the vaus Paty eades he cncedes that they mayhave many advataes ve hm; they may have me knwede

mptant thns speak the anuae he pepe ette ht me cuaeusy than he ut ne thn he s cetan:'the thnkn s me auty I daesay t s ut what s the use that the mptant thn n ptcs s nt pvate thnkn ut asBecht nce put t the at hnkn nd he pepes heads?*

Actvsm ted t epace mateast daectcs y the vaue un

denae n cass tems dnay cmmn sense At est ts 'men mnd epesent a cetan atttde n the wds: the pncpeupn whch ths cectve s ased s n tse a eactnay ne nwnde then that the eect the cectve was neve evutnay

The pencs pncpe ehnd such a methd mn a cectve cntnues hweve t peate. We saw t at wk when Dn pushed hs Wn un Vn (' Knw and t Chanethee yeas a hs text as we a ememe tk the m aepy t a yun man Dn cas hm He Hcke wh hadaddessed hmse t the amus auth wth the questn 'What st e dne Dn nvtes He Hcke t espuse the cause Scasm ut n cetan questnae cndtns Scasmaccdn t Dn s 'eedm spntaneus asscatn human

ens eusa a cnstant evt aanst nustce and cnstant t s humanty teance and peaceu ntentns B that ast may he takes ths scasm as the stn-pnt an autatck upn te they and pactce the adca wkncassmvement Nthn wtes Dn can devep ut anthethn uness t s aeady pesent n t: ut mudeusy exacea

ted cass stue may cme ustce ut nt scasm 'Yu mydea s ths s hw Dn muates the advce whch thsand the easns he es t He Hcke 'nnt y nn the

h folog passag, dd ognaly appad h mausp pla of x st: O oskys ods "Wh lghdpass da o aolsh Wa y mas of aoas agums thy a

smply dos Wh h amd masss sa o p h agums ofRaso aast Wa hov sgns h d of a



The Auho as Poduce 93

proearian fron, give pracica eec o he armaion wih whichyou respond in prncipe o he srugge (of he proearia Youmus conne yoursef o approving his strugge wih emoion and

wih sorrow; for you mus now ha, if you do more, hen a remendousy imporan posiion wi fa vacan . . he origina communis position of individua human freedom, of sponaneous soidary and uniy among men . . This, my dear Sir, is he ony posiion appropriae o you. Here i becomes papaby cear where heconcep of he 'man of mind as a type dened according o his

opinions, inenions or predisposiions, bu no according o hisposiion whn he producion process, mus ead. This man, saysDbin, shoud nd hs pace a he side of he proeria Bu whasor of a pace is t The place of a wewsher, an deoogicaparonA impossibe pace. And so we come back o he hesis weproposed a he beginning: he place of he ineectua in he cass

sugge can ony be deermined, or beer si chosen, on he basisof his posiion whin he producion process.Brech has coined he phrase nciona ransformaion (U

uioieug) o descrbe he ansformaion of forms and insrumen of producion by a progressive ineigenia an ineigensia ineresed in iberaing he means of producion and hence acivein he cass srugge. He w he rs o address o he ineectuashe far-reaching demand ha hey shoud no suppy he producionapparatus whou, a he same ime, whin he imis of he possibe,changing ha apparatus in he direcon of Sociaism 'The pubicaion of he Vesuche' we read in he auhors inroducion o heseries of exs pubished under ha ile, marks a poin a whichcerain works are no so much inended o represen individua ex

perences (ie o have he characer of nished works) as hey areaimed a using (ransforming cerain exisng insitues and insiuions. I is no spiriua renewa, as he fasciss procaim i, h isdesirabe wha is proposed is echni innovaion. I sha reu ohis subjec aer. Here I shoud ike o conne mysef o pointingou he decsive dierence beteen merey suppying a producion

apparatus and changing i. I shoud ike o preface my remarks on heNew Obecivity wh he proposiion ha o suppy a producion



94

appartus wthout tying, wthn the lmts of he possble, to chaget, s a hghly dsputabl actvty even when he materal suppledappears to be of a revolutonay nature. For we are confronted wth

the fact - of whch thereh been no shortage of proof n Gemnyover the last decade - hat the bourgeos apparus of productonand pblcaon s cpable of assmlatng, ndeed of propagatng astonshng mount of revoluonary hemes out ver serouslyputtng nto queston ts ow contued exstence or hat of e classwhch ows t. In y case ths remans te so long s t s suppled

by has, albet revolutonary hacks And I dene a hack as a mawho rees as a mater of prncple to mprove he produconappars and so prse t away from the ulng class for he benetof Socalsm I tr mantan that apprecable pat of soclledleftwng lterature hd no other soca funcon tn ht of ontnually extactng new eecs or sensatons from hs suton forthe

pblc's entertanment. Wch brngs me to the New Objetvy It launched the fashon for rorage Let us ask ourselveswhose nrests were advanced by ts technque

For greater clary let me concentrate on photogaphc repoge.Watever apples to t s nsfeable to he lterry form. Both owether exaordnary development to pbcaton technques - rdoand the llustted press Let thnk back to Dadasm. The revolu

tony strength of Dadasm lay n testng art for ts auhentcy.You mde sllfes out of ets spools of cotton cgarette sbs,d mxed hem pctora elemens You put a ame round thewhole thing And n s wy you sad to the pubc: look your pcre frame destroys me; he smallest auhentc agment of eveydaylfe says more ha pntng. Just as a murderers bloody ngerprnt

on a page says more h e words pnted on t. Much of hs revolutonry atude passed nto photomontage. You need only hnkof he works of ohn Held whose teche made the bookacket nto a poltl sument But now let follow the subsequent development of photogaphy. Wat do we see? It has becomemore and more se, more and more mode d e resut s that

t s now pb ofphotogaphng a tenement or a bshheapthout ansgurng t Not to menton a rver dam or elect



The Auho oucer g5

be cto: in front of ese, phoogrphy can now onl sa, 'Howbeuti. The Wold Is Beauuhat is te tie ofthe we-kownpicre book b RengerPzsch in whih we see New Ojectivit

photogph t is pek. It hs succeded in ing bect poveritsef, b hnding it in modsh, tecni perect w, ino nobect of enoment. Forifit is n economic ncon of photogrphto supp e mses, b modish processing, with mtter whichprevious euded mss consumption Spring, fmous peope,foreign countries en one of its poiti functions is to renovte

te word s i is om e inside, ie. b modish techniesHere we hve n extreme empe of wht it mes to supp

production pprs wihout changing it. Chngng it woud hvemet bringing down one of te be, sumounting one of econradicions whic inhibit e productive cpac of the inteigentsi. Wht we must demnd from he photogrpher is the bi

to put such a cption beneah his picre w rescue it from hevges of modishness nd confer upon it revoutionay use vue.And we sh end greter emphasis to is demnd i we, as ters,strt aking photogphs oureves. Here agn, erefore, technicprogress is, for e auhor s producer, the bis of is poiticprogress. n oher words, inteec production cnnot becomepoitic usefu unti e septe spheres of competence to which,

ccording to e bourgeois view, he process of inteecu production owes its order, hve been sumounted; more precis, ebarrer of competence must be broken dow b each of e productive forces he were created to seprte, acting in concer. B e>periencing his soidar w e proetariat, the uor s producere>perence, direct nd smuaneous, his soidr w cerin

oer producers who, unti hen, ment itte to m spoke of the photogrpher et me now, very bre, quote

rmk ofHnns Eisers bout e musicia In the deeopment ofmusic, both producon nd in reproduction, we ust e torecognze n everincresing process of onzio . . . Thegamophone record, e sound m, e nickeodeon . . . mrket

the words best music productions cnned om. The consequence of is process of ioniztion is t musi reproduction



96

is becoming limited to groups of specilist which are getting smller,but also more highly alied ll he time. The cisis of concerthll music the cisis of a fom of production made obsolete

nd overtken by new technicl inventions In oher words thetsk consisted i the 'ctional trnsformtion of he concerthll fom of music in mnner which had to meet two conditions:that of removing rst the dichotomy of performer nd audience

nd secondly ht of technicl method nd content On hs pointEisler mkes he folowing nteresting obseation We should be

wre of overestimating orchestral music and hinking of it as heonly high at-form Music without words acqired its great imponce nd its ll development only under cpitlism. This suggests that he tk of trnsforming concert music requires help fromthe word. nly such help c s Eisler pus it ransform concertinto political meetng. The fct tht such tansfomton my

relly represent pek achievement of both musicl and literytechnique this Brecht nd Eisler hve proved wh their ddcticply The Meases Ten.

If at his point you look bck at the meltng-down of literryfoms of which we spoke erlier you will see how photogrphy andmusic join he inndescent liquid mas from which he new forms

willbe st; and you wll ask yourseves wht other element may

lkewse enter ito it Only the literization of ll living conditionsgives some ide of the scope of this melng-dow process; and thetemperare t which the melting-down tkes plce (perfectly orimperfecty) is detemined by the stte of the clss struggle

I have spoken of the way in which certain modish photographersproceed in order to make humn misery an object of consumption

Tuing to he New Objecivity as literry movement I must goa step rther and say that it has ed h uggl gins misyinto an object of consumption. In mny cses indeed its policalsignicnce hs been limied to converting revolutionry reexesin so far as these occued wihin he bourgeoisie into themes ofentertinment and amusement which can be ed without much

diculty into the cbret life of lrge city. The characteristic feature of this liteare is the wy it trnsfoms politicl srggle so that



The Auhoa Podue 97

it ceases to be a compellng motve for decson and becomes anobject of comfotable contemplaton; t ceases to be a means of producon and becomes an artcle of consumpton. A perceptve ctc*

has commented on ths phenomenon, usng Erch Kser as anexample n the followng terms: 'Ths left-radcl ntellgentsa hasnothng to do w the workngclass movement It s a phenomenonof bourgeos decadence and as such the counterpart of that mmcryof feudalsm whch n the Kasers me w admred n a reserveleutenant. Leftradcal oualsts of Ksers, Tucholskys or

Mehrngs ype are a mmy of the proletaran for decadentstrata of the bourgeose Ther ncton vewed poltcally s tobrng forh not partes but clques; vewed from the ltey anglenot schools but fashons vewed economcally not producers butagents Agents or hacks who make a great dsplay of ther povetyand tu the gapng vod nto a feast One couldnt be more comfort

able n n uncomfortable stuatonThs schoo as I sad made a great dsplay of ts poverty. By sodong t evaded the most urgent task of e wrter of today: that ofrecognzng how poor he s and how poor he must be n order to beble to begn agan at the bnnng. For that s e pont at ssueTue the Sovet State does not lke Platos Republc, propose toexpel ts wrters but t does and ths s why I menoned Plato athe begnnng propose to assgn to them sks whch wll make tmpossble for them to parade the rchness of he creatve personalty whch has long been a myth and a fake, n new mastepeces Toexpect a renovaton n he sense of more pesonaltes and moreworks of ths knd s a pvlege of fascsm whch n ths contextproduces such foolsh fomulatons as he one wth whch Gnther

Gndel rounds o the ltey secton of The Msion of he oungGeneaon: We cannot close hs . . revew of the present and outlook nto the ture . n a better way than by sayng that theWilhelm Mee e Ge einich of our generaton have not yetbeen wtten Nohng wll be rther from the mnd of an author

• Cf. Wal Bnjamin, ink M!nholi (L Mlanhol'), on Erh

Ks' nw book of pom n D Geelchaft, 8 (1931 vol L pp 182£ nqong fom hml Bnamin ha at h original tet.



98

who has relly thought about he condions of producon todaythan to expect or even to want such works to be witten. He will

never be conceed with products alone ut always, at the sametime, with the means of production In other words, his produtsmust possess an organizing nction besides and before their character as nished works And their organizationa uselness must onno account be conned to propagandistic use. Commient aonewill not do it The excellent Lichtenberg said: 'It is not what a man

is convinced of hat matters but what his convicons make of him.Of couse opinions matter quite a lot, but the best opinion is of nouse if it does not make somehing usefu of those who hod it Thebest tendency is wong if it does not prescbe the attitude wthwhich it ought to be pusued And he wter ony prescrbesuch an attitde n the place where he is acive, that is to say in hiswting Commient is a necessay, but never a sucient condtion for a witers work acquiring an organizing function. For histo happen it is aso necessay for the witer to have a teachers attitude And today this is more han ever an essenal demand. A wrirwho dos o ach ohr wrirs achs oody. The crcia pointherefore is hat a writers producion must have he chaacter of amodel it must be abe to instruct other writers in their producton

and, secondy it must be abe to place an improved apparatus at theirdisposal This appaatus wil be the better he more consumers itbrngs in conct wth he producon process - in short the morereades or spectators it tus into collaborators We aready possessa mode of his kind of which, however I cannot speak here in anydetai It is Brechts epic heatre.

Tragedes and operas ae being wrien al he time appaentywih a usy sge apparas to hand whereas in reaity they donothing but suppy an appaaus which is obsoete. This consionamong muscans wrtes and cr about heir siuaion, saysBrecht, has enormous consequences whch receive far too liteattention. Beieving themselves to be in possession of an apparas

which in realiy possesses them, they defend an apparatus over whichthey no longer have cnol which is no longer as they still believea meansr he producers but has become a means to be used agais



Te Auor a Proer 99

he producers. This heatre of complex machneres, ggancarmies of stge etras and etra-rened sage eects has become a

meas to e used aganst e producers, not least y the fact at t sattempng to recrt hem the hopeless competve stggleforced upon it y lm ad rdo. This heatre t maters llewhether we hnk of the heatre of uure or hat of nteranment,snce oth are complementry to one anoer s the heatre of asaturted straum for whch aything that comes its way is a stimu

lant. Its postion is a ost one Not so the poson of a theatre whch,instead of competng aganst he newer means of commucaton,es t appy them and to le from em n shor, enter nto adalogue wth them Ths daogue he epc theatre has adopted s tscause Matchng he present development of lm and rd, t s htheae for our me

In the nterests of ths daogue Brecht went ack to he most fundamentl and orgna elements of heatre He coned himself, as were, to a podum a patform. He renounced pots requrng a greatdea of space Thus he succeeded n alterng he ctona relatonshp etween stage and audience, text and producton, producer andactor Epic theare, he declared, must not deveop acons ut represent condons. As we sha presently see, t otans s 'cndons

y aowng the actons to e nterrpted. Let me remnd of you ofthe songs, whose prncpal ncton consss n nterruptig theaction. Here, then that s to say, wh the prnpe ofnterruptonthe epc theare adopts a technique whch has ecome famlar to youn recent years through lm and rado, photogrphy an he press.I speak of he technque of montage, for monage interrupts he

context into which it is insered Allow me, however, to expanvery rey why t s here that hs technqe enjoys seca, andperhaps supreme, rghts

The nterrupng of he acon, he technique whh enesBrecht to descre his the as epic aways works agast creatngan lluson among e audence. Such lluson s of no use to a theatre

whch proposes to treat eemens of realty as f they were elementsof a e>"ermentl setup Yet the conditions stand at the end, notthe egnning of the test These condons are, n one form or



zo

another, te conditions of our life. Yet they are not brought closeto te spectator; ey e distnced from him He recogizes themas real - no as in the theatre of naralism, with complacency, but

with astonishmet Epic theatre does not reproduce conditions;rather, it discloses, it uncovers them This uncovering of the conditions is eected by interrupting e dramatic processes; but suchinterruption does not act as a stimulant; it has a organizing ntion It brings te action to a standstill in midcourse and therebycompels te spectator to take up a position towards e action, and

the actor to take up a position towrds his part. Let me gve anexmple to show how Brecht, in hs selection and reament ofgesres, simply uses the method of montage wch is so essentialto radio and lm in such a wy that it ceses to be a modish tchniqe d becomes a huma event. Picre to yourself a family row:te wfe is just about t pick up a bronze staette ad hur it at e

daughter; the father is opening a window to call for hep. At thismoment a strager enters The process is intpted what becomesapparent in its place is the condition now eposed before thestranger's view disrbed fac, open wndow, a devatatedinterior There eists, however, a viewpoint from which eventhe more nomal scenes of presentday life do not look so veydierent from this That is the viewpoint of the epic dramatist.

He opposes the dramac laboratory to the nished work of art.He goes back, in a new way, to the theatres greatest and most ancientopponiy he opporni to expose the present At the centre ofhis eperiments stands man. The man of today; a reduced m, therefore, a man kept on ice in a cold world. But since he is te only one

weve got, it is in our interest to know him. We subect him to testsand obseations Th outcome is tis events are not changeableat their clima not rough vire and resolve, but only in theirstrictly ordnary, habial course, trough reason and practiceThe purpose of epic theatre is to construct out of e smallestelemens of behaviour what Aristotelan drama lls acion. Its

means, therefore, are more modet an hos of tdiional hatrei aims likewise. It sets out, not so much to ll the audience with



1e uor a ru

feeings - beit possibly feeings of revot - as to aenate the audence in a asting maner trough thought from the conditions inwhich it lives Let me remark by the ay, that there is no betterstating point for thought than auter; speang more preciselyspsms of the diaphragm generaly oer better chances for thoughtthan spasms of he soul. Epic theate is avish ony in the occaionsit oers for laughter

You may have noticed that the reections whose conclusions weare now nearing make only one demnd on the wrter: the demand

to hk, to reect upon his position in the production process. Wecan be sure that such hinking he wrers who maer that is tosay he best technicians in hir parculr branches of the trade wil sooner or ater lead them to conm very sobey eir soidrwth the proletariat. To concude I shoud ike to quote a topiclproof of his in the fom of a shor passage om he Pais periodi

Commue This periodica held an inquiy under he ttle 'Forwhom do you ite? I shall quote from he rey by Ren Maublancand then some reevant coments by Aragon. Maubac says 'Thereis no doubt hat I rite almost excusivey for a bourgeois pubicFirs because I am obliged to [here he refers to his professionaldutes as a grammarsoo teacher] and secondly becuse I amof bourgeois og had a bourgeois edution and come from abourgeois environment and therefore m naray incined to address he css to which I beong which I kow best and can bestunderstad. But hat does ot mean hat I write to pese hat cassor to uphold it. On e one hand, I am convinced that the proetariarevoution is necessary and desibe on oer hand I beieveat he weaker the resisace of the bourgeoisie he more rapid the

easier the more successl and the ess boody this revouon wllbe . . Te proletariat today needs allies in the bourgeois camp, justas in the eighteenth centry the bourgeoise neeed aies in thefeuda cmp. I shoud ike to be among tose aies

Aagons comment on this is as foows Our comrade heretouches upon a sate of airs which aecs a vey arge number of

presentday witers. Not a have he couage to ook it strght inhe eye . . Those who are s cer about their own position as Ren



Z2

Maublanc are rae. But it is precisely from these that we must demand still more . . It is not enough to weaken the bougeoisiefrom wthin: it is necessay to ght it togehe wih he proletariat. .

Ren Maublanc and many of our friends among writers who arestill hesitant have before them the example of Soviet Russian writerwho came from the Russian bourgeoisie and yet became pioneersof Socialist constrction

Thus fa Aragon But how did these writers become pioneers?Surely not without very bier suggles and agonizing conicts

The considerations I put before you are an atempt to draw a positive balance from these strggles. They are founded upon he concept to which the debate conceing he attitude of Russian intellecuals owes its solution the concept of he expert. The solidarityof the expert wth the proletariat - and therein lies he beginningof this solution can never be other than mediated The Activists

and adherents of New Objectiviy may strke whatever poses heylike they n do nothing about the fact that even the proletaraiation of e intellecal hardly ever makes him a proletaran. WhyBeuse the bourgeois class has endowed him with a means of production in he fom of his eduon which on the grounds ofeducational privilege, creates a bond of solidaiy which attacheshim to hs class, and sill more attaches his class to him. Aragon wastherefore perfectly rght when in another contet he sad 'Therevolutionary intellectual appeas rst of all and above everythingelse as a tator to his class of origin In a wrter this betrayal consists in an attiude which transforms him from a supplier ofthe production apparatus into an engineer who sees hs task in adaptingtha apparaus to the ends of the proletarian revolution That is a

mediang eectiveness but it nevertheless frees he intellecafrom the purely destrcve ask to which Maublanc and many comrades wih him, believe he has to be consigned. Will he succeed ifurthering the unicaon of the means of intellecual production?Does he see ways of organizing the intellecal workers whin heracual production process? Has he suggesons for changing he

function of the novel of dma of poety The more completelyhe can address himself to hese taks he more correct his thiking



T!ze Author Producer z 03

wil be nd neerily e higher w be the tehni qulity o hiwork And onversely he more preiely he u undersnd hiown poition wthin the prodution proe, the le it w our to

him to p hime o 'mn o mind The mind the pirit thtmke itel herd in he nme o im u dipper The mindwhih beieve ony in it own mgi rength willdippe For theevolutionry ggle i not ought beween pitim nd mind.t i ought between pitlim nd the proletrit.

walter benjamin_the author as producer

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