INFORMATION TO USERS

This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from tfie original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may t>e from any type of computer printer.

The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print t>leedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction.

In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, tftese will t>e noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to t)e removed, a note will indicate the deletion.

Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps.

Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order.

Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMI’

COLLECTIVES IN CRISIS; MALE BONDING IN BERTOLT BRECHT'S PLAYS

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree Doctor o f Philosophy in the

Graduate School of The Ohio State University

By

Stephen Thomas Benner, B.A., M.A.

*****

The Ohio State University 2000

Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Helen Fehervary, Adviser

Professor Bernd Fischer Adviser Professor Gregor Hens Germanic Languages and Literatures Graduate Program UMI Number 9982526

UMI

UMI Microform9982526 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.

Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Art)or, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT

Despite the end of the Cold War, Bertolt Brechts work retains a power and resonance for our own times, as the structures which lie at the foundations of our society have not essentially changed. Much has been written in the past two decades on Bertolt Brechts use and depiction of women both in his work and in his creative process, but little attention has been paid to the various portrayals of male-male relationships in his texts.

And yet, many of Brechts texts deal with male-male relationships as friends, comrades, enemies, and even lovers, divergent models of male relationships which are the focus of this dissertation. Brechts representations of male bonding fall broadly into three categories. First, he criticizes as inherent to the capitalist economy the male homosociality which involves the exchange of women as commodities. But the early Brecht also sought to invest male relationships with utopian potential. In his earliest plays, he portrays homoerotic relationships as "natural" phenomena in opposition to a

It heterosexuality mediated through capitalism. Later, he turned to the male

collective, first as a positive locus of revolutionary potential, but then

increasingly untenable due to historical circumstances.

Baa/anû Im Dicidc/it der Stadte regr&s/ent homosexual desire as a

transgressive act which rescues the male protagonists from bourgeois moral

strictures. In/^ann ist/^ann, the military unit where identity is

interchangeable provides the central model for homosocial bonds. A In u fs tie g

und Fall der Stadt/^ahagonny, the comradery enjoyed by four lumberjacks in the natural wilderness of Alaska is eventually destroyed in the profit-driven

pleasure city. In the fragmentaryDer Untergang des Ego/sten Fatzer, the

male collective fails to take advantage of its revolutionary potential because of an over-dependence on its leader's charismatic personality. Male collectives became increasingly problematic with the rise of the National Socialists to prominence. The conclusion shows how Brecht could no longer rescue male bonding from class politics in Die Ausnahme und d/e Regelanû Herr Punti/a

undse/n Knecht Matti. In the end, positive patterns of male bonding remained for Brecht ephemeral phenomena which had to give way to more mature relationships.

I l l For Keith, with all my love.

IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my adviser, Professor Helen Fehervary, for her

constant support, encouragement and insistence that I stay true to my critical

purpose.

I would also like to thank Professor Bernd Fischer and Professor

Gregor Hens for their willingness to serve on this dissertation committee.

Special mention must also be made of Professor Kathy Corl, my

mentor in teaching for the past eight years, for her consistent support and

enthusiasm for my work.

There have been many people over the years who have shaped my

thinking and desire for intellectual pursuit. I would especially like to mention

Carl and Avery Springer, James van der Laan, Wolfgang Pfabel, Richard

Whitcomb, all of whom were my teachers at Illinois State University. I would

like to thank others who taught at Ohio State: Leslie Adelson, Johanna Belkin,

Alan Beyerchen, Dagmar Lorenz, Donald Riechel, Gisela Vitt and Harry

Vredeveld.

Thanks must also be given to the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Ohio State for their many years of support. Finally^ I must thank my parents and my siblings for giving me the values, strength and courage which I hold so dear. And I must thank Keith, to whom this work is dedicated, for his years of patient endurance and encouragement as I completed this degree. His careful eye watched out for errors both technical and critical. It was only with their support that this project was possible.

VI VTTA

May 9, 1968 ...... Bom - Streator, Illinois

1990 ...... B.A. German, cum lau d e Illinois State University Normal, Illinois

1990-1991 ...... Ful bright Fellow, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat Frankfurt, Germany

1992 - 1999 ...... Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University

1993 ...... M.A. German, The Ohio State University

1995-1996 ...... Exchange Fellow, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universitat Bonn, Germany

1997 ...... Instructor, Department of Modern Languages, The University of Dayton

1998 ...... Instructor, Department of Languages, Denison University, Granville, Ohio

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: German

VII TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page A b stract ...... ii

Dedication ...... iv

Acknowledgments...... v

Vita ...... vil

Abbreviation...... ix

Introduction ...... 1

Chapters:

1. Life to the Fullest:B a a ! ...... 16

2. Existential StruggleIm Dickicht der Stadte...... 50

3. Losing One's Self:Mann ist M ann ...... 82

4. Caught in the Net: Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt M ahagonny 109

5. kDea(lEï\6: Der Untergang des Egoisten F a tze...... r 125

Conclusion ...... 147

Bibliography ...... 165

VIII ABBREVIATION

BFA Brecht, BertoltW erke. GroBe kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe. 30 Bde. Berlin und Weimar: Aufbau; Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1988-97.

IX INTRODUCTION

Although much has been written In the past two decades on Bertolt

Brecht's female collaborators and the depiction of women in his work, little

attention has been paid to the various portrayals of male bonding in his texts.

And yet, many of Brecht's texts deal with male-male relationships as friends,

comrades, enemies, and even lovers, all divergent models of male

relationships which will be the focus of this dissertation. Brecht's

representations of male bonding fall broadly into three categories.

Throughout his work, he criticizes as inherent to the capitalist economy the

male homosociality which involves the exchange of women as commodities.

But the early Brecht also wanted to create a utopian space, sometimes naïve

and sometimes salutary, where male relationships could fulfill new roles and

purposes. In his earliest plays, he portrays homoerotic relationships as

"natural" phenomena in dialectic opposition to a heterosexuality mediated through capitalism. Later in the 1920's, he turned to the male collective, first as a positive locus of revolutionary potential, but then increasingly untenable due to the historical circumstances in which Brecht lived and worked. Most work on Brecht In recent years has focused on any of three

issues: positioning Brecht within modernism and a postmodernist deconstruction of his work; a feminist critique of Brecht, his work and his collaboration with several women; and his continuing impact and influence on theater and performance methods. Particularly, much attention has been paid in recent years to dissecting and debunking John Fuegi's infamousB rec h t a n d

Company: Sex, Politics and die Making o f the Modem Drama{199A). Fuegi's biography, like that of Ronald Hayman a number of years earlier, starts from an essentially anti-Brechtian stance and never abandons Its true cause of shedding negative light on Brecht. Fuegl, In particular, has taken what Is basically a conservative political stand and cloaked It In a pseudo-feminist approach to Brecht by claiming to argue the case for Brechtis female collaborators. This recent emphasis on Brecht's biography, fueled both by

Fuegi's book and the centennial celebrations of Brecht's birth, has led much current criticism away from appreciating Brecht as writer and poet, as a creator of literature, and as social critic. In this dissertation, I intend to bring the discussion of Brecht's work back to Brecht's own critical Intentions, with particular focus on how Brecht initially invested a significant utopian potential in male-male relationships, only to abandon them as historical circumstances demonstrated the negative impact such male comradery could have. All too often, Brecht has been subjected from both the right and the

left to monolithic readings which neglect the multivalency of his thought and

writing, seeking out those things which appear to fit a given mold of criticism

and ignoring those things which do not. Bertolt Brecht was rarely the orthodox Marxist, although his writing is penetrated with Marxist thought. But

Brecht often rejected monolithic ideology in favor of a well-reasoned criticism of the status quo, even when the results of that criticism did not meet some pre-ordained expectation. As Fredric Jameson opens his 1998 monograph

Brecht and MeUiodWx^ an attempt to define a new role for Brecht after the

Wall:

Brecht would have t>een delighted, I like to think, at an argument, not for his greatness, or his canonicity, nor even for some new and unexpected value of posterity (let alone for his 'postmodemityO, as rather for hisusefulness—ax\6 that not only for some uncertain or merely possible future, but right now, in a post-Cold-War market-rhetorical situation even more anti­ communist than the good old days. (1)

The "victory" of capitalism ten years ago has not made most of his insights invalid. Indeed, as the Western world becomes more and more prosperous, we are shifting our loci of exploitation further and further away, not only for the lower costs, but also because it keeps the true foundations of our economic success out of plain view. As Marc Silberman wrote in the editorial opening the 1991Brecht Yeartook, "We are convinced that Brecht's writing continues to represent an essential and relevant intervention for the analysis of radical social change. Brecht tackled questions of domination and

exploitation in his own time that continue to define the agenda of political

transformation" (x). Brecht scholarship faces the serious threat of becoming

curatorship, preserving the legacy of an author many would like to forget We

therefore need to recognize Brecht both for his literary genius and his political

vision.

Significant scholarly energy has been spent on demonstrating Brechts

misogyny on the basis of his portrayal of women as either prostitutes or

almost genderless mother figures. Most feminist criticism of Brecht has

followed the line taken by Sara Lennox that in Brechts works ”[w]omen are

conceived almost without exception in terms of their relationship with men,

[...] displaying only to a very limited extent the complexity and capabilities of

real women in Brechts time" (85). And yet, it is important to remember that

Brecht often portrayed the world for reasons other than realism. Brechts

portrayal of male-female and male-male relations, in my opinion, had more to

do with his political agenda of revealing the political and economic

foundations of his society and less to do with an inherent sexism. Most critics

of Brecht from the feminist perspective have failed to note Brechts critical

stance toward the transactional nature of the relationship between the men in which these women are being used as objects of exchange. His portrayal of these relationships does not mean an endorsement of them. Brechts project was to disclose the foundations of the capitalist economy and bring about the

necessary will for change in his audience. In most of the plays to be

discussed in this dissertation, the basic economic exchange of commodities

which forms the macroeconomic structure of capitalism is reproduced on a

personal level in the exchange of women as commodities. This reduction of

women to commodities occurs for the primary purpose of creating and

strengthening bonds among men. Males gain stature and power within the

patriarchy by creating these bonds with other men; since this "climbing the

ladder" to success is ingrained as the essential mythology of capitalism, men

seek out these homosocial relationships. As Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick wrote in

her groundbreaking Between Men, "there is a special relationship between

male homosocial (v7c/uoXr7^ homosexual) desire and the structures for

maintaining and transmitting patriarchal power: a relationship founded on an inherent and potentially active structural congruence" (25). The establishment of homosocial relationships helps a man to define his masculinity, as Pierre

Bourdieu writes: "La virilité doit être validée par les autres hommes, dans sa vérité de violence actuelle ou potentielle [...]" (58). This creation of homosocial triads, of course, predates the industrial capitalism of Brechts time, indeed as Claude Lévi-Strauss notes in hisElementary Stmctures o f

Kinshipr. "[t]he total relationship of exchange which constitutes marriage is not established between a man and a woman, but between groups of men. and the woman figures only as one of the objects In the exchange, not as one

of the partners" (115). Brecht wrote In 1925 of human relationships being

"contractual:"

Die meisten Beziehungen leiden darunter und gehen oftmals dadurch in die Bruche, da6 der zwischen den betreffenden Menschen betstehende Vertrag nicht eingehalten wird. Sobald zwei Menschen zueinander in Beziehung treten, tritt auch, in den allermeisten Fallen stillschweigend, ihr Vertrag in Kraft. Dieser Vertrag regelt die Form der Beziehung.{^BFA 21, 111)

In particular, the offering of homosocial bonds both creates opportunities for those in a lower economic class to achieve some of the benefits and privileges of those above them and also allows those classes which are in control to sublimate any revolutionary tendencies with the (illusory) offer of exchange.

Some of the women portrayed in the plays to be considered here embody their role as commodity directly, for example, the prostitutes of

M ahagonny. Some such as Begbick inMahagonny Mann ist Mann have learned to turn this position to their own advantage. These women are shown as crafty in their ability to survive the economic conditions which have forced their situation. More frequently, however, the women in these plays, from

Emilie in B a a !to Mrs. Kaumann in F a tze r, have internalized their status and show it in their willingness to participate in transgressive sexual acts. Once the foundations of the moral code with which they had been indoctrinated are broken, the gates are opened to all sorts of sexual transgressions. These plays are marked with numerous liminal experiences because these frontiers represent the limits of what Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari call "the nets of the despotic State, entirely invested in the despot's machine" (224). The strict encoding of bourgeois morality as an essential part of the capitalist economy also creates the desire to transgress those frontiers, which are "something to go beyond, limits to cross over, flows to set in motion, noncoded spaces to enter" (Deleuze and Guattari 224). It would be too simple to stop with the immediate presentation of women as decadent and immoral, as some critics have done. It is important to realize that is very much a part of Brecht's agenda to alienate his audience from their own inherited sense of morality and initiate a desire for a new order. Brecht was not always clear about the nature of that new order, but he knew that the old order had to go.

Brecht, especially in his early days, enjoyed the comradery he received from his circle of male friends. His early work is permeated with examples of male-male bonding and affection among men. In the 1920 poem "Ballade von der Freundschaft,"^ Brecht writes of a close relationship with a friend:

Wie zwei Kürbisse abwarts schwimmen Verfault, doch an einem Stiel In gelben Flüssen: Sie trieben Mit Karten und Worten ihr Spiel. Und sie schossen nach den gelben Monden Und sie liebten sich und sahn nicht hin:

First published in 1925 and later included in theHauspostille. BUeben sie vereint in vieien Nachten Und auch: wenn die Sonne schien. [...] Als es kalter auf Erden wurde Dach fehlte und Zeitvertreib Unter anderen Schlingpflanzen lagen Umschlungen sie da, Leib an Lelb. Wenn sie reden in den Stemennachten Horen sie mitunter nicht mehr hin: Vereint sie in vieien Nachten Und auch: wenn die Sonne schien. {BFA 11, 95)

Even when circumstances and maturity separate the two friends, they will always remember the intimacy of their youth:

Aber jener, in vieien Wochen Auf dem Meer, bei der Frau, im Gestrauch: Es verblassen viele Himmel Doch der Mann am Baum wird nicht bleich: Die Gesprache in den Stemennachten Arm in Arm und rauchend, Knie an Knien Die sie stets vereint, in vieien Nachten Und auch: wenn die Sonne schien. {BFA 11,97)

Brecht^s intimate relationships with men in his early days represented a flight from the responsibility and worries of bourgeois respectability, a theme which will be echoed in plays such asIm Dickicht der Stadte. As he wrote inVom armen B.B}\

Gegen abends versammie ich um mich Manner Wir reden uns da mit "Gentleman" an Sie hat)en ihre FüBe auf meinen Tischen Und sagen: es wird besser mit uns. Und ich frage nicht: wann. {BFA 11, 120)

- Written in 1922 and included in the appendix ofHauspostille. For Brecht, men represented a permanence and reliability which apparently was not available from the women in his early adult years. He writes in the poem "Immer wieder"^ of a love relationship with a man:

Wenn ich diesen Mann ansehe Er hat nicht getrunken und Er hat sein altes Lachen Denke ich: es geht besser. Der Frühling kommt, eine gute Zeit kommt Die Zeit die vergangen ist 1st zurückgekehrt Die Liebe beginnt wieder, bald 1st es wie einst.

Immer wieder Wenn ich mit ihm geredet habe Er hat gegessen und geht nicht weg Er spricht mit mir und Hat seinen Hut nicht auf Denke ich: es wird gut Die gewohnliche Zeit ist um— Mit einem Menschen Kann man sprechen, er hort zu Die Liebe beginnt wieder, bald 1st allés wie einst.

Der Regen Kehrt nicht zurück nach oben Wenn die Wunde Nicht mehr schmerzt Schmerzt die Narbe.{^BFA 11,171-72)

Brecht had many relationships of varying natures with other men and they defined his early adult years."* In particular, his experience in World War I

’ Written in 1926-27 and included in the appendix toLesebuch für Stadtebewohner.

* See, among others, Amolt Bronnen,Tage m it Bertolt Brecht, and Hanns Otto Münsterer, The Young Brecht.

9 gave him a sense of compassion for soldiers, their suffering and the early end

to their lives—a compassion which extends throughout his career. In the

Kriegsfibef, written in 1944, he writes of the German soldiers in Russia,

caught in a photograph from U fe magazine:

Seht unsre Sohns, taub und blutbefleckt Vom eingefromen Tank hier losgeschallt: Ach selbst der Wolf braucht, der die Zahne bleckt Ein Schlupfloch! Warmt sie, es ist ihnen kalt.{BFA 12, 250)

As seen in these brief excerpts from his poetry, together with the plays to be

discussed below, relationships with men were essential for Brecht.

In his early plays, Brecht criticized the male-male exchange of women

as commodities while at the same time searching for utopian potential in

other pattems of male bonding. The first two plays under consideration here,

fi^a/and Im Dickicht der Stadte, represent homosexual desire as a transgressive act set in the "natural" world which allows the male

protagonists to escape (temporarily) the threat of stasis posed by

heterosexual relationships and the potential of pregnancy. BIn aai, the hedonistic poet Baal has a series of affairs with women before settling into a long-term homoerotic relationship with Ekart, whom he eventually murders out of jealousy. Baal's libido is engaged by his entire milieu, showing a

"godlike pansexuality" which is seen as "anti-bourgeois and liberated" (Brown

- My thanks to Professor Helen Fehervary for pointing out Brecht's lifelong compassion for soldiers.

10 18-19). In this piece, Baal's homoerotic liaison with Ekart Is positioned in a

"natural" world of the woods at the threshold of civilization, whereas his affairs with women all occur within the social and physical confines of the city, away from nature. But, as in DickichtMahagonny, the "natural" world of the woods is under the threat of eventual extinction brought on by the very men (lumberjacks) who are enjoying the homosocial comradery which can only exist as a liminal existence. InD ick ich t,the successful capitalist Shlink attempts to overcome the isolation and loneliness which are the result of his economic position. He seeks to restore life to a more primitive state, in which the struggle among men is acted out in a more direct manner than through the nimble dance of the homosocial exchange mechanism. Shlink chooses Garga, an effete lover of literature and lowly bookseller, as both his opponent and object of desire in order to set him free from the idealistic illusions which obsess him. As the two men move through the intricate dance of their struggle, they reenact the various stages of male- male competition, including acts of homosocial exchange, in which Shlink eventually "conquers" the two women closest to Garga: his girlfriend and his sister. But the women are not Shlink's ultimate goal—he seeks to conquer

Garga himself as a love object. In the end, though, Brecht abandons the overt homoeroticism of his earliest plays as a youthful flirtation with

11 transgressive sexualities and attempts in the later plays o f the 1920's to create a positive model for male relationships in the comradery of collectives.

In the next play to be considered,M ann is t M ann, the military unit provides the central model for the creation of homosocial bonds. This play centers around the question of human identity in the face of exploitative imperialism. In the course of the play, we witness the manipulations necessary to transform the "einfacher Packer vom Hafen"{^BFA 2,101), Galy

Gay, with "ein weiches Gemüt"{BFA 2,95) into a soldier in the British colonial army in India. The interchangeability of identity points to its ultimate meaninglessness in the face of pressures from the collective, but at the same time identity is revealed in this piece as consisting primarily of only a name and a social function or position. The military uriit lures Galy Gay away from his heterosexual frame of reference (his wife and buying the fish) and he is

"wie ein Auto ummonti'ert"{BFA 2,123). Thus, Galy Gay is subsumed into the homosocial organization of the military unit and becomes a leading force in the British campaign of exploitation. This abandonment of individuality in favor of joining the male collective was first evaluated by Brecht in positive terms, but by 1931, what had been considered positive was now negative in light of the increasing political prominence of the National Socialists.

12 The next two chapters portray the dissolution of male homosocial

groups. In Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, the comradery enjoyed by

four lumberjacks in the natural wilderness of Alaska and Paul Ackermann's

attempt to recreate it are perverted and eventually destroyed by the ever­

present profit motive of the city's proprietors. In the fragmentaryD e r

Untergang des Egoisten Fatzer, four soldiers at the end of the First World War

make the decision, under the leadership of Fatzer, to desert the army and

return home to start a revolution which would bring an end to the slaughter

on the battlefields. Once they have returned home, the bonds which were

created on the battlefields begin to wear. The homosocial triangle is

reenacted when Kaumann makes the de facto offer of his wife to Fatzer by

refusing to meet her demands for sexual satisfaction. Indeed, as Marianne

Streisand points out, this is "ein deutliches Zeichen fur den 'Ersatz,' den

Kaumann in der, auch erotisch mobvierten Hingebung an Fatzer gebunden

hat" (317-18). But in the end, the revolution fails because Fatzer is unwilling to compromise his leadership role and his egoism and the others cannot look

beyond this personality cult to create a more pragmatic model for revolution.

remained a fragment when Brecht abandoned work on it in 1930

because he could no longer see revolutionary change led by a charismatic leader such as Fatzer as compatible with his own politics.

13 With the beginning of the 1930's, Brecht was no longer convinced of the positive possibilities of male collectives, and with the end of the work on

F a tze r, he turned to revolutionary models which are (more or less) gender- free such as inDie MaBnahme and the later plays of the 1930's. He did, however, revisit male relationships in two plays which will be examined briefly in the conclusion. In bothDieAusnahme und dieRage!{193Q-3Q) and H e rr

Puntiia und sein iOiechtMaW{19AQ), the employer is isolated by his position from humane relationships with his employees. In both plays, their attempts to reach out and break through these relationships are rebuffed because their employees know too well that a fiiendship which must be commanded is no friendship. Brecht's attempt to revive a positive role for male-male relationships ultimately failed because of the intransigence of class relations.

In P u n tiia, Brecht inextricably linked property ownership, fascism and the desire for male bonding. As he had written in about 1935, "Wer den

Privatbesitz an Produktionsmittein nicht preisgeben will, der wird den

Faschismus nicht loswerden, sondem ihn brauchen"{BFA 22, 105). With this he reinforced the abandonment of homosocial revolutionary potential when the Fateer project failed.

In the end, creating a revolutionary potential for male homosocial relationships proved for Brecht to be an ephemeral phenomenon associated with youth which eventually had to give way to more mature relationships.

14 With the rise of the negative example of the National Socialists, Brecht was unable to save the male collective as a possible locus for positive revolution.

This dissertation is the first full-scale examination of Brecht's shifting conceptions and hopes for male-male relationships and will show that Brecht repeatedly contradicted his own earlier positions. With the knowledge gained from looking at these plays under this new light, hopefully Brecht scholarship can look beyond the last decade's debates about Brecht's misogyny and once again appreciate Brecht's multifaceted social and political criticism.

15 CHAPTER 1

LIFE TO THE FULLEST: BAAL

When Bertolt Brecht was preparing the 1954-55 edition of his works,

he took an apologetic stance towards his first full-length play,BaaL In the essay "Bei Durchsicht meiner ersten Stiicke," he warned: ”dem Stuck fehit

Welsheit"{BFA 23, 242), but he also tried to situate his first major piece in its

proper historical context:

Das Stuck "Baal" mag denen, die nicht gelemt haben, dialektisch zu denken, allerhand Schwierigkeiten bereiten. Sie werden darin kaum etwas anderes als die Verheniichung nackter Ichsucht erblicken. Jedoch setzt sich hier ein Tch" gegen die Zumutungen und Entmutigungen einer Welt, die nicht eine ausnutzbare, sondem nur eine ausbeutbare Produkbvitat anerkennt. [...] Die Lebenskunst Baals teilt das Geschick aller andem Künste im Kapitalismus: sie wird befehdet. Er ist asozial, aber in einer asozialen Gesellschaft.{BFA 23, 241)

Brecht thus attempts to create a socially critical stance even for his earliest work, which to some degree is certainly present, but his later perspective negates some of the obvious youthful pleasure he derived in writing his play of asociality. In his early work, especiallyB aal, it is clear that Brecht saw both a utilitarian value to the contrarian nature of the asocial artist as well as a

16 more simple pleasure derived from being contrary for its own sake. But by

1939, Brecht was able to write: "Es ist geradezu das Evangelium des Feindes

der Menschheit, daB es asoziale Triebe gibt, asoziale Personlichkeiten usw."

(in Schmidt, 109).

Brecht wrote four distinct versions of between 1918 and 1926\ In

many ways, the themes inBaa/^re among the most conventional of Brecht's

plays. A play about a poet-outsider who wants to assert his individuality in the

face of an oppressive bourgeois society was hardly new material—it had been

the stuff of literary discourse for over a century by the time Brecht wrote his

play. Indeed, Brecht's piece was initially written as a parodistic counter-play

to Hanns Johst'sD erB nsam e, written about the nineteenth-century German

writer Christian Dietrich Grabbe. Here, however, Brecht's Baal is not exactly a

historical figure; indeed, he shares his name with the ancient fertility god who

is the principal idol of the Israelites in the bible. Unlike his Expressionist

contemporaries, Brecht did not envision a salvation for the poet-individualist

who seeks to live his life to the fullest. In the end, Baal has to accede to his

fate, the inevitable result of a life of pure consumption with no opportunity

' The 1922 version serves as the basis for this chapter, which, except for the first scene, was the basis for Brecht's versions in 1953 for Suhrkamp and in 1955 for Aufbau. The 1918 version was never published by Brecht and represents a much more direct counterplay to Hanns Johst'sD er Einsame efooiA Grabbe. This version shows Baal giving up his connection to the bourgeois environment from he comes only with difficulty. The 1919 version removes most of this and is closer to the 1922 version. The 1926Lebens/auf des Mannes Baal, with a tightened and more focused story (from 29 scenes in 1919 to 13 in 1926), was given a more precise historical setting (pre-war Germany) and a greater emphasis on the everyday banality of existence. Reference will be made to other versions as necessary. 17 for renewal or restoration. TTiis theme of an egoist who struggles against and

tries to change his fate is repeated over and over in several of the plays to be

discussed in the following chapters. Just as Baal allows himself to be

subsumed into the murky chaos from which he emerged, Fatzer and Paul

Ackermann {Mahagonnÿ^ deliver themselves to their executions and Galy Gay accepts induction into the military.

This play is marked with a strong sense of the liminal as well as an urgency to keep the natural flow of events from settling into a stasis. The latter is shown in the open, episodic form of the drama which allowed Brecht to add and delete scenes as he revised this play. But this open form correlates to the open, unplanned way of life lead by Baal himself. As Walter

Sokel writes, "[h]is life is entirely of the moment. It makes no claim to continuity, and is therefore able to bum in undivided intensity"

C'Introduction" xxviii). Baal's life is a constant cycle of ebb and flow in search of fulfillment. Eventually, he will find "seine Erfüllung darin, sich selbst zu verbrauchen und dann zufrieden, satt in die Natur zurückzukehren" (Knopf

17). Appetite and its satisfaction are theraisons d 'être o fBaal's life. The governing principle of his life, as reported in the "Choral vom grossen Baal" which opens the piece, is: "Was man will, sagt Baal, ist was man muB"i^BFA

1,86). Ronald Speirs makes the insightful connection between Baal, with his name borrowed from an ancient god of fertility in the bible, and other

18 characters of a "modem paganism" such as Nietzsche's Dionysus and

Wedekind's Lulu. All three represent a "cult of vitality/' which tries to overcome the fear of a fulfilled life which was seen as so inherent in the strictures of the bourgeois moral code (20). Productivity at many levels, including artistic production and the creation of interpersonal relationships, is limited within the capitalist economy by being reduced to merely an exchange value (Buhl 29). But for Baal, his cult of vitality is counter-cultural. As Brecht wrote in his 1920 poem "Über die Vitalitat":

Der Vitalitat sind die Folgen egal. Die Vitalitat macht sich ailes bequem. Es gibt keine Hemmung. Z.B. Baal War als Mensch nicht angenehm.{BFA 13 ,15 0)

Baal may refuse commodification, for which he is called "asozial", but Baal is not a revolutionary, either. He does not seek to change the conditions that marginalize him and others who show signs of vitality. Indeed, he implicitly accepts that his refusal to cooperate means his reduction to unwanted waste material, as seen in the scene "Nachtcafé zur 'Wolke der Nacht'" when he removes himself from the stage to the toilet{^BFA 1,1 08 ).

In the course of this play, the character Baal seeks to live out life to its highest /7/7y5/ca/potential. However, this is not a goal to be achieved at the end of life, but the goal of every single moment as he seeks fulfillment constantly through an ever-changing onslaught of objects and persons which may potentially satisfy his appetite. Indeed, Baal is not so much a man of

19 desire, for desire can endure and even remain unrequited; instead, he is a man of appetite, which returns again and again after the fleeting moment of satiation has passed (Jameson 7). The pursuit of the ultimate physical experience and the ever-recurring appetite leads to every moment of Baal's life being a flirtation with those experiences which societal norms would classify as forbidden. Baal is not satisfied with conventional flaunting of social rules; he is driven to choose the greatest violations and pursue them with relish. This may initially appear as a desirable state o f freedom from concern about societal approval, but, indeed, Baal's constant need to satisfy his appetite is an addiction. As the minister remarks towards the end of the 1919 version, "Sie treiben Notzucht am Leben"{^BFA 10, 55). As Qayum Qureshi writes,

Baal ist tatsachlich kein freier Mensch; er steht in der Macht dunkelster Triebe, deren Wesen er nicht begreifen kann, aber deren Willen auszuführen er gezwungen ist. Er kann nicht anders handein, als er es In Wirklichkeit tut. (83)

But these drives are biological, physical drives more than psychological ones.

Baal is a human being stripped of the social conventions which distinguish human beings from animals. Indeed, he is often described in animalistic

20 terms: "Ihre Zahne sind wie die eines Tieres: graugelb, massiv, unheimlich"

{BFA 1, 9 1 )/ But it is precisely this horrifying, rough animal nature which attracts others to Baal.

Baal acts counter to the conventional morality of a society which looks to suppress appetites by binding social strictures, but he is also not a revolutionary seeking to change those moral codes. As Klaus-Detlef Müller writes,

Als sein eigener Abgott kennt Baal weder Glauben noch Moral. Dabei ist jedoch zu beachten, daB er nicht gegen die Gesellschaft, die ihre Zwange durch Idéologie legibmiert, revoltiert, sondem er sie auf geradezu naive Weise ignoriert. (Joost et al., 95)

Baal's liaisons with women may for him be merely outlets for sexual energies, but for both the women who submit to Baal willingly and those who are raped by him, these sexual adventures have serious social consequences. The women are aware of these consequences before they submit, but there is a significant digunction between the desires of the body and these women's self-conceptions. As Richard Block writes, they "cannot reconcile their physical desires for Baal with the notions they have of themselves" (121). As Hans

Natonek noted in his review of the premier production in Leipzig (December

- other mentions of Baal's animaiity: the Hausfrau calls him "Bestie"{_BFA 1, 100) when she discovers him with the two girls in his attic room. Ekart reduces him to the animal: "Stehst du noch da, du Vieh? Hast du keine Knie? Bist du im Schnaps ersoffen oder in der Lyrik? Verkommenes Tier! Verkommenes Tier!" (5/v4 1, 120). The lumberjacks call him "Elefent" in the scene "Baume am At)end"(BFA 1, 112-113) and he is reduced to "eine Ratte" in the final scene{BFA 1, 135). 21 8,1923): "Er ist das Starke Mann-Tier, dessen Geruch die Madchen aniockt"

(in Schmidt, 174). The women, in fiact, are showing the same desire for an instinctual life that Baal demonstrates, but what for Baal is seen as liberating

"is viewed as a weakness" in women, "making them inferior to, and open to exploitation by, free men like Baal" (Brown 19). The women in this play represent for Baal a social order which seeks to rein in his instinctual life of appetite and satisfaction while at the same time they are sacrificing their status within that society by submitting to an unapproved sexual partner. The accepted blindness "to bodily urges is seen in the women's display of hostility towards their own bodies" (Block 121).

The play is marked throughout with images of fluidity (water, blood, saliva, slime, excrement, swamp), all of which trangress boundaries. As

Hedwig Fraunhofer writes, summarizing Julia Kristeva and Klaus Theweleit,

"fluids and floods are metaphoric displacements of the repressed (and subsequently externalized) drives, including the sexual drives, and the threat of identity loss" (122). Baal's relationships with women and men are also liminal, but in different ways. The heterosexual liaisons represent to Baal "the threat posed by the feminine [which] is ciphered as disintegration, dissolution" (Fraunhofer 122) of the ego. The homosexual relationships are already marked as immoral and unacceptable by the dominant moral code.

Baal's relationship with Ekart also takes place in the woods outside of town, at the edge between "civilization" and "nature".

Baal's libidinal energies are not just limited to women or men—he is pansexual or "polymorphous [sic] perverse" in that "he demands that everything can and must be used for his own pleasure" (Blumberg 45). Baal embodies a sexuality centered around the incessant pursuit of pleasure combined with the never-ending discarding of those things and persons he has used. Baal is related to the character of Bargan in the 1919 story "Bargan last es sein"{^BFA 19,24-37), where he is described in similar terms of insatiability:

Und der nun, nur well eretwas haben wollte, dem er nützen konnte, sich an diesen Aussatz gehangt hatte und allés sein lieB fur ihn und wohl noch froh war, daS es kein guter Mann war, den er [Croze] liebte, sondem ein geffaSlges Kind, das ihn ausschlürfte wie ein rohes Ei, mit einem einzigen Zug. Denn ich will mich vierteilen lassen, wenn er nicht noch GenuB daran hatte, an dem kleinen Hund, auf den er sein Auge geworfen hatte, mit allem, was sein war, zu Grunde zu gehen, und drum allés sonst sein lieS.{BFA 19, 37)

In a way, Baal can be seen from today's perspective as an archetypal

Verbraucher, in the true sense of the German word for "consumer," in that

Baal literally consumes all around him and spits it out. In this sense he represents the hedonism which lies (often veiled) at the base of the capitalist economy. Baal moves between basically two worlds: that of "polite" society. always in the cities, where despite all of the pretension surrounding him, Baal

seems to have no problem finding an adequate supply of female sexual

partners who are willing to forgo their social status because o f Baal's

irresistible charms. The second world which Baal inhabits is nominally the

world of nature, conceived by Baal himself as the opposite to the structured

existence of the city. This world of "nature" is also a strongly homosocial

world, occupied almost exclusively by men, and seemingly without the

binding strictures of heterosexual relationships. Baal's relationships, often

erotic, in this world are with men. Women are seen as the representatives of

oppressive civilization who seek to thwart the homosocial order as found in

the woods. But this world of nature, where Baal feels most at home, is

constantly under threat from the encroaching forces of civilization, embodied

in the very men in whose company Baal feels most comfortable. After all, the woods are inhabited by lumberjacks whose job it is to clear the natural environment for the sake of "progress".

Brecht himself makes the connection between nature and sexuality in

Baal, when he wrote in 1942: "In 'Baal' ist Landschaft und Sexualitat dem groBen Assozialen [sic] ausgeliefert" (in Schmidt, 110). Exploitation of both land and fellow human beings is central to this play. In particular, Baal seems opposed to others' attempts at exploitation, for example, of his poetry and of the environment, even though he is an exploiter himself beyond compare.

24 Baal is the embodiment of self-centered consumption, in which all things exist for his enjoyment alone. For Baal, there is nothing significant external to his being; those around him are retained in his presence only for as long as they contribute to his sense of self-importance. Once Baal's appetite has been satisfied, he spits out (sometimes literally) the object of his desire in a gesture of disgust. "In fact the rhythm of the play is based upon the progression of intense desire, acute sensation in gratification, and a temporary period of satiety before the regeneration of desire" (Lyons 313).

The elimination of waste is celebrated in the Orge song{BFA 1,93-94), in which Baal celebrates the toilet as a place of reflection after the appetite is satisfied and "Ein Ort der Weisheit, wo du deinen Wanst / Fur neue Lüste praparieren kannst." {^BFA 1, 94) Reflecting biology, the elimination of waste is necessary for further consumption to occur.

Sabine Kebir likens the stories of the women in this play to "fünf

Gretchentragodien," in which the women are "verdammt, Baal blindlings zu folgen und unterzugehen" (20). The women Baal takes are left in a state of limbo, because they cannot return to their former (virginal or chaste) lives.

Baal's all-consuming appetite produces a lot of waste, something Baal revels in, and these women become part of that waste. Baal's "love" for a woman represents a liminal experience for him, where he can get the thrill of flirting with danger without any real consequences. Baal, with no social standing,

25 unlike the women, has the option of withdrawing from society when the

threat of danger becomes too severe. Baal's liaisons with women are not

unlike a boy playing with fire or involved in extreme sports—the pleasure is

derived from the edge experience, one which hearkens back to an innate

survival instinct and a more animalistic nature. As he tells his disciple

Johannes, the love (of a woman) requires a violent nature: "Man muB Zahne

haben, dann ist die Liebe, wie wenn man eine Orange zerfleischt, daB der

Saft einem in die Zahne schieBt"{^BFA 1,9 0). This strong image of a man who cannot wait to gingerly remove the peel of the orange to gorge himself is followed up shortly by another simile: "die Liebe ist auch wie eine KokosnuB, die gut ist, solange sie frischt ist, und die man ausspeien muB, wenn der Saft ausgequetscht ist und das Fleisch bleibt über, welches bitter schmeckt"

{BFA 1, 91). Baal consumes women like an animal tearing into fruit or a piece

.of steak, only taking that which Is good and discarding the remainder. The women who submit to Baal do so as a result of his overwhelming force, as

Ute Wedel states, "Baals Verhaltnis zu Frauen ist kein gesellschaftlich vermitteltes Verhaltnis—, sie [die Beziehungen] sind von einem Naturrecht des Starkeren bestimmt" (124). Why does Baal, to whom "Mannerherzen zufliegen"i^BFA 1, 92), nonetheless seem to have a need (at least while in society) to conquer women as sexual objects?

26 The motives behind Baal's choices in women vary, but the primary selector seems to be their ready availability for transgressive sexual liaisons.

This is not to say that the humiliation of these women is Baal's primary motive; indeed, he is most interested in the satisfaction of his sexual appetite. Any humiliation arising from these situations is a secondary benefit.

But this social transgression gives Baal's sexual conquests even more of an edge. Emilie, the society wife of the rich lumber dealer Mech, appears to have the most social standing at risk by her falling to Baal's charms. She dismissed him in the opening scene C'Helles Zimmer mit Tisch"), because that is what is expected of her in the social milieu composed of her husband and his business partners. Yet, just two scenes later, she is summoned to the

Branntweinschenke, an establishment well below her social standing. Emilie did not have to answer Baal's summons—her head is clearly telling her that this situation is socially compromising: "Wie kannst du mich hierherbestellen!

Lauter Gesindel und eine Branntweinschenke! Das ist so dein Geschmack"

{BFA 1, 92). And yet, it is precisely this lack of taste, as she later protests:

"Wie geschmacklos du bist!"{BFA 1, 92), which attracts Emilie. In the homosocial environment of this bar, where men are often intimate with each other in ways they cannot be intimate with women, women in general, including Emilie, are reduced to purely sexual objects. As they say at the beginning of this scene: "Der gehdrt der Hintern verschlagen. — Geil sind sie

27 wie die Stuten, aber dümmer. Pflaumen soil sie fressen! — Ich hau die meine

immer blau, vor ich sie befriedigen tu"{^BFA, 1, 91). And later, in reference to

Emilie:

Ein Fuhrmann iv/e/ie/f/osTrumpfsaul GestochenI ZwETTER Fuhrm ann Nur welter, sagt die Dim, wir sind über dem Berg! Gelachter. Pflaumen soli sie fressen! D rttter Fuhrmann Scham dich, untreu sein! sagte die Frau zum Knecht ihres Mannes, der bei der Magd lag.{^BFA 1, 93)

These men also are delighting in the social humiliation of a woman who had thought herself better than they, even pointing out her apparent hypocrisy with regard to the adultery of one of her husband's servants. Baal's putting

Emilie up for public ridicule is a pornographic act, with the "Charakter sexuel 1er Ersatzbefriedigung(en) " (Wedel 127). This humiliation of women is characteristic of a homosocial environment, where "Emilies Emiedrigung [ist] ein willkommener AnIaB, eigene sexuelle Agressionen auf sie zu projizieren und somit wie Baal in den GenuB einer sexuellen Ersatzbefriedigung zu gelangen" (Wedel 127).

Why does Emilie submit to this humiliation? She is aware of Baal's abusive nature and yet she has still come to this bar, unable to control herself: "Wenn Sie wüBten; so ist er immer. Und ich liebe{^BFA ihn" 1, 93).

She is conscious of what this situation is doing to her own self-esteem, but

28 she is unable to control herself. In the 1926 version of the play, Emilie adds

to this statement a comment which indicates that she is aware of Baal's

purpose:

So 1st er immer, und ich liebe ihn. Es wird ihm morgen nur leid tun, wenn er mich nicht ganz hat kaputtmachen konnen. Er gieBt mir diesen Kirsch in den Leibe und macht mich so schmutzig, daB ich morgens in keinen Spiegel mehr schaue. Aber ich weiB noch ganz gut, daB das allés nicht gut fur mich ist: Ich will namlich jetzt nicht mehr.{BFA 1,149)

When Baal proposes a sexual liaison with the barmaid in Emilie's presence,

she makes her (weak) claim over him: "Du sollst nicht so reden, Baal! Du

weiBt nicht, was du mir damit tust" {BFA 1,9 5). Emilie seems to believe that

her declaration of love will be sufficient cause for Baal to rein in his

appetites—after all, that what she was taught by her social upbringing. Baal

offers Emilie up to one of the drivers for a kiss: "Bist du kalt, Emilie? Liebst du

mich? Er ist schüchtern, Emmi! KüB du!"{BFA 1, 95). Baal knows exactly the

right words to force Emilie to submit to this humiliating moment: by invoking

Emilie's own declaration of (hopeless) love for Baal, Baal is able to bring the

process of public humiliation to its final climax. Baal knows nothing of this

love from women, for females represent to him "the settled petrification of

bourgeois security" (Milfull 16). Baal cannot allow women to impose a stasis on him, for his never-ending cycle of appetite and satiety cannot be fulfilled

by the love of one woman. Instead, "[sjexuelle Befriedigung realisiert sich für

Baal im Brechen weiblichen Widerstandes" (Wedel 127). We do not know

29 definitely If Baal has had sexual relations with Emilie (it seems to be implied); but that is not the important thing here. Baal has satisfied his desire to humiliate publicly the wife of the man who had tried to turn Baal's lyrics Into a commodity.

Another of Baal's female victims is Johanna, the virginal girlfriend of his disciple Johannes. Johannes is unable or unwilling to have sex with her, even though he seeks advice from Baal about this very matter in the second scene. Johannes himself protests that he is "zu schwach, es zu{^BFA tun" 1,

90). This weakness, in my opinion, arises out of Johannes' fear of his own homosexual orientation. It is Johannes, after all, who states in the following scene: "Ich begreife, daB Ihnen Mannerherzen zufliegen, aber wie konnen Sie

Glück bei Frauen haben?"{BFA 1, 92). Johannes' sexuality will be explored later, but it is clear that Johannes is all too capable of understanding sexual and romantic attraction, just not that between members of the two sexes.

Johanna, in the meantime, is treated as a fruit ripe for the picking, so to speak, and if Johannes is unable to take care of this, Baal will gladly step in.^

Johanna steps in to try to protect Emilie's virtue in the scene at the

Branntweinschenke, but her efforts are rebuffed by Emilie:

’ Compare "Bargan laBt es sein" in which Croze and Bargan have a rivalry over a woman, but Croze is unable to function sexually and kills her. "Und in den darauffolgenden Tagen [...] lebten die beiden zusammen wie friiher, wie Brüder, die zusammen einen Mord begangen haben" {^BFA 27). Croze eventually becomes Bargan's obedient slave (see Aspetsberger 245).

30 Jo h an n a legt den Arm um sie [Emilie]: Ich verstehe Sie gut, es macht nichts. E m ilie Sehen Sie mich nicht so an! Sie sind ja noch so jung. Sie wissen ja noch nichts.{BFA 1, 93)

Johanna tries to establish herself as the protector of a woman's virtue, but her

ideas of a woman's virtue, as well as her apparent repudiation of Baal's disregard for any forms of civility, cannot keep her body from violating the contradictions or abstract mores under which she seeks to define herself. So alien does her body become to her that she must finally murder it. (Block 121)

Both Baal and Johanna are attracted by the animalistic nature of the sexual act, but their responses afterward totally converge. Baal revels in the moment of satiety, while Johanna at the same time seeks to clean herself and at least physically remove signs of the sexual liaison with Baal:

Jo h an n a Willst du nicht das Fenster aufmachen? B a a l Ich liebe den Geruch. — Was meinst du zu einer frischen Auflage? Hin ist hin. [...] Johanna Wo ist mein Leibchen? Ich kann doch so nicht... B a a l h a ft es ih r hin: Dal — Was kannst du nicht, Geliebte? Jo h an n a Heim. LàBt es fallen, zieht sich aber an. {BFA 1, 97)

Johanna knows that she can no longer return to home, or at least to her innocence, as indicated by her refusal to put on her corset. Baal sends her home, but he hears in the next scene from the two sisters that she has drowned herself in the river. Johanna apparently felt that she had no choice in this situation. She, the voice of virtue in the exchange with Emile, had permanently damaged her own virtue by being unfaithful to Johannes.

31 Towards the end of the play, Baal sings "Das Lied vom ertrunkenen

Madchen," where Johanna is reduced to carrion C'Aas") which is left behind after the predator has had his fill:

Als ihr bleicher Leib im Wasser verfaulet war Geschah es, sehr langsame, daB Gott sie allmahlich vergaB: Erst ihr Gesicht, dann die Hande und ganz zuletzt erst ihr Haar. Dann wird sie Aas in Flüssen mit vielem Aas.{BFA 1, 126)

Baal's reduction of his victim to a nameless piece of waste starts first with that physical feature of the body which most identifies a person—the face. As

Vincent Gunther explains, "das Gesicht ist das Individualiste, der unverwechselbare Ausdruck des einen Menschen" (505). But Johanna is not the only waste product of Baal's time on earth: indeed, he now sees the entire world as either something waiting to be consumed or, already having been consumed, a giant waste product: "Ich sehe die Welt in mildem Licht:

Sie ist das Exkrement des lieben Gottes"{BFA 1,1 2 6 ). Thus Johanna's fate is reduced to insignificance, a part of the natural cycle of being used and then wasting away to nothingness.

After Baal has learned of Johanna's fate, he finds himself suddenly unable to gather enough energy to take the two sisters who come to his room in the scene "Baal liegt auf dem Bett". The news of Johanna's death momentarily causes Baal to suffer what seems to be a case of indigestion

17 after a bad meal: "Ich bin heut so faul, ihr konnt heim" i^BFA 99). This leads

Baal to consider momentarily changing the direction of his life and to focus on

the emotional life, but this is doomed to failure. Baal

steht auf, streckt sich:, Kanallje mit Herz! — Ich bin heut sowieso schon verflucht faul.Erwirft Papier au f den Tisch, setzt sich davor. Ich mache einen neuen Adam.EntwirftgroBe Inidaien auf dem Papier. Ich versuche es mit dem inneren Menschen. Ich bin ganz ausgehohit, aber ich habe Hunger wie ein Raubtier. Ich habe nur Haut über den Knochen. Kanallje! Lehnt sich zurQck, streckt aiie viere von sich, emphadsch. Jetzt mache ich den Sommer. Rot. Schariachen. GefraGig.E rsum m t wieder, es wird wieder dunkei. {BFA 1101) ,

For a brief moment, Baal seems committed to a new expressionist outlook on

his life and art and attempts to get in contact with the "new man" which can

arise beyond the crass appetites of everyday humanity. Baal spends four days

creating these images of summer: "Jetzt schmiere ich den vierten Tag das

Papier voll mit rotem Sommer"{BFA 1,101) before, as could be expected, his

hunger returns. His appetite can only be satisfied for a limited moment before the hunt for a new object of prey consumes his every energy. As John Milfull

writes, "his excesses are due to an inspired impatience, a desire to hasten the

progression fromMutterschoBXo ErdenschoB' (16). The absence of a woman

in Baal's life leaves a gap in Baal's self-definition, a gap which he seeks to fill

as quickly as possible: "Ich bin ein Liebhaber ohne Geliebte" and "Ich muB

ausziehen. Aber erst hole ich mir eine Frau. Allein ausziehen, das ist traurig"

{BFA 1, 101). As Elizabeth Wright explains, "the libidinal aim is the desire of another, not the person as such, who becomes expendable once the circuit of desire is completed" (100). Baal's response to this situation is to abduct

Sophie Barger and make her his sexual slave by stripping her of her identity.

Baal's kidnaping of Sophie Barger is motivated by an absence created by the premature death of Johanna. Baal was unable to continue living (after only four days!) the solitary life of an artist: "Es muBte etwas WeiBes in diese verfluchte Hohlel"{BFA 1, 102), the color white being associated with female virginal purity throughout this play. Baal is also a creature in touch with the natural environment—the onset of spring has caused him to seek out a mating partner just like the animals he acts like. Twice, Baal justifies his taking of Sophie by invoking the spring mating season as found in the animal world: "Es 1st auch Fruhjahr" and "Es 1st der April. Es wird dunkei und du riechst mich. So 1st es bei Tieren"{BFA 1, 102-3). Baal's unwillingness to listen to Sophie's pleas for release are further justified by his invoking of his name:

Sophie Barger atem losLa^ m ich ! B a a l Ich heiBe Baal. {BFA 1, 103)

But when Sophie tries to invoke her own name as an attempt to be released,

Baal ignores the reference to her social status that the name invokes. For him, familial names and the affiliations they represent are meaningless—only his name, shared with the mythological god Baal, bears any significance in

Baal's world.

34 Sophie BargerWeiBt du denn, wie ich heiBe? Ich heiBe Sophie Barger. B a a l Du muBt es vergessen.KüBtsie. {BFA 1,103)

Once Baal strips Sophie of her familial name, she makes a final plea to her family connections in the guise of her mother and siblings, but Baal dismisses this once again. Baal has removed her identity, her familial connections and her dignity. As Sabine Kebir states, "Wenn sie sich nach vollbrachter

Vergewaltigung auch noch angstvoll an ihn klammem—weil sie sich nicht getrauen, zur Mutter zurückzukehren" (20), Baal's victims such as Sophie are forced to stay with him. She declares her love for him: "Ich hab dich lieb"

{BFA 1, 103), but this is the love of a woman who has nowhere else to go.

Indeed, Baal has so stripped her of her dignity that she declares in a later scene C'Mainacht unter Baumen"): "Ich mochte mich verkriechen in dir, weil ich nackt bin, Baal" {BFA 1, 105). This nakedness is not so much physical nudity as the fact that she has been made completely vulnerable. The final blow to this relationship is the discovery in the scene "Ebene. Himmel.

Abend" that Sophie is pregnant. There is no greater threat to Baal's sense of himself than a child, as stated in the opening chorale:

Gibt ein Weib, sagt Baal, euch allés her LaBt es fahren, denn sie hat nicht mehr! Fürchtet Manner nicht beim Weib, die sind egal: Aber Kinder fürchtet sogar Baal. {BFA 1, 85)

35 This follows exactly the path of all heterosexual relationships as Baal

explained to Johannes in the second scene C'Baals Dachkammer"):

Wenn der bleiche milde Sommer fortschwimmt, und sie [Frauen] sind vollgesogen wie Schwamme mit Liebe, dann werden sie wieder Here,bos und kindisch, unformig mit dicken Bauchen und flieBenden Brusten und mit feuchtklammemden Armen wie schleimige Polypen und ihre Leiber zerfallen und werden matt auf den Tod. Und gebaren unter ungeheurem Schrei, als sei es ein neuer Kosmos, eine kleine {BFA Frucht 1, 90)

Baal's final rejection of Sophie and her unborn child, however, comes in a

context which has not yet been discussed: Baal's homosexual relationships,

especially that with Ekart. Together with Ekart, Baal escapes "civilization" and

returns to what is perceived to a more primitive, and hence, more ideal state

in the woods.

Male-male relations are privileged in this play t>ecause they represent

for Baal (and quite possibly the young Brecht himself) a purer state untainted

with the constraining forces of "love" and societally-sanctioned marriage. At

the same time, however, these homosexual relationships share a transgressive nature with the heterosexual affairs Baal has pursued at the

edge of society. In this play, writes James Jones, Brecht declares "das

befreiende Potential der Sexualitat auBerhalb der gesellschaftlichen Grenzen"

(67). Neither kind of erotic relationship in Baal's life is acceptable within customary bourgeois morality. Baal, of course, has little use for these moral codes: he lives only for himself. As Manfred Voigts states, "Baal ist—fern aller

36 bürgerlichen Realltat—identisch mit seinem Erieben, was aber eben nur unter

Umgehung der bürgerlichen Welt môglich ist, Baal braucht die âuBerlich verinnerlichte Moral nicht" (53). But the transgression against morality is only secondary to the primary pursuit of pleasure, for, as we have seen with the heterosexual relationships described above, Baal is often more egocentrically involved and the social ramifications of his actions remain largely irrelevant to him. But the liminality of these relationships gives them an edge, a thrill which feeds Baal's desire for a life lived to its fullest.

Baal has two relationships with other men which can be construed as sexual in nature. These follow two distinct models. The first relationship, that between Baal and Johannes, who is described as a passive disciple^ takes place within society and within a homosocial triad, in which the two men are interested in the same female, Johanna. Johannes is not only unable because of his weakness to take Johanna's virginity, he is horrified at the thought of it.

In the second scene C'Baals Dachkammer"), Johannes relates a dream to

Baal:

Ich habe eine Geliebte, die ist das unschuldigste Weib, das es gibt, aber im Schlaf sah ich sie einmal, wie sie von einem

■* Brecht's depiction of Johannes is influenced by his relationship with Amolt Bronnen, whom he met in 1921 and whoseVatermord^xexhX. was supposed to direct. Bronnen, writing in the third person in hisTage m it Bertolt Brecht, writes of his first encounter with Brecht: "Er hatte das Schülergefühl: Liebe, groGe Liebe in der Welt, gib mir den als Freund" (14). Bronnen clearly t>ecame obsessed with Brecht: "Das ergab plotzlich zusammen vierundzwanzig Stunden Brecht mit dem Problem: Wie zu ihm gelangen? Wie ihm dienen, wie ihm helfen?" (22). Bronnen awaited Brecht's letters "wie ein Liebender" (108). See also Friedbert Aspetsberger,'am oltbronner)'" Biographie Bohlau, 1995), especially 237-345. 37 Machandelbaum beschiafen wurde. Das heiBt: Auf dem Machandelbaum lag ihr welBer Leib ausgestreckt und die knorrigen Aste umkiammerten ihn. Seitdem kann ich nicht mehr schlafen. {BFA I , 89)

By relating his dream, Johannes in effect offers Johanna to Baal as a means of his getting closer to the poet. Johannes clearly associates heterosexual sex with impurity and uncleanliness, an association which leaves him "zu schwach, es zu tun"{BFA 1, 90). Johannes, unlike Baal, is also concerned about the possible social and legal ramifications of a potential sexual liaison :

"Aber das Gesetz straft es und die Eltem!"{BFA 1, 90). When Baal explains his basic philosophy of heterosexual relationships, Johannes feels vindicated in his feelings. But the truth lies elsewhere, as can be seen in this excerpt:

B a a l Sie hat weiBe Wasche um ihren Leib, ein schneeweiBes Hemd zwischen den Knien? Wenn du sie beschiafen hast, ist sie vielleicht ein Haufen Fleisch, der kein Gesicht mehr hat. JohannesSie sagen nur, was ich immer fuhle. Ich meinte, ich sei ein Fèigling. Ich sehe: Sie halten die Vereinigung auch fur schmutzig. B a a l Das ist das Geschrei der Schweine, denen es nicht gelingt. Wenn du die jungfraulichen Hüften umschlingst, wirst du in der Angst und Seligkeit der Kreatur zum Gott. Wie der Machandelbaum viele Wurzein hat, verschlungene, so habt ihr viele Glieder in einem Bett und darinnen schlagen Herzen und Blut flieBt durch. {BFA 1, 90)

Johannes has assumed that Baal joins him in his disgust for heterosexual sex, but he cannot understand Baal's appreciation of sex as pleasure. It seems clear that Johannes sees sex with Johanna as both an obligation "as a man" and as forbidden by the laws o f society and the parents. Johannes' invocation

38 of external authority to back up his timidity seems a shallow ploy to cover up

his more deep-seated problem: that he is unwilling to consummate the

relationship with Johanna.

Johannes, like all true disciples, is obsessed with his mentor Baal.

Johanna, Johannes' nominal girlfriend, even says to Baal that she is

"eifersüchtig auf Sie. Er schwarmt immer von Ihnen"{BFA 1, 91). It is the context of this remark that Johannes makes the comment: "Ich begreife, daB

Ihnen Mannerherzen zufliegen, aber wie konnen Sie Glück bei Frauen

ha ben?" {BFA 1,92). After Johanna has drowned herself, Baal sees Johannes coming "[m]it einem Gesicht wie eine Frau!"{^BFA 1, 101). Johannes is thus feminized as the other in a homosexual relationship. Johannes knows all too well how a man's heart could fall in love with Baal, for he himself is in that situation. The same statement also illuminates what has been said earlier:

Johannes does not understand how heterosexuality works.

Baal's second relationship is more clearly sexual. Ekart is a composer with a vitality and strength completely lacking in Johannes, who is reduced to acting as the jealous lover in the "Branntweinschenke" scene. Johannes sees that this temptation coming from Ekart is strong enough to take Baal away from his art and, more importantly, away from Johannes. Johannes warns Baal, "LaB dich nicht verführen" and "Denk an deine Mutter und an deine Kunst," while at the same cursing his opponent for Baal's affection:

39 "Schamen Sie sich! Sie sind der Teufel!"{^BFA 1, 95). Why would Johannes feel so threatened by a man described in the stage directions as "hager und ein machtiger Bursche"{^BFA 1, 94)? Ekart, who clearly comes from a different background from the effete Johannes (Knopf 17), represents an alternative path for Baal. Johannes, who has been reduced, feminized, within society, represents the other for Baal; Ekart, however, represents someone who is the same. Hence, Baal moves from a heterosexual model of relationships based on power and subjection to a model based on sameness and equality. For this model to succeed, however, Baal and Ekart have to leave society and enter the woods and return to nature.

Ekart sees that these current entanglements with women are threatening Baal's essential connection to nature: "Gott hat einen vergessen.

WeiBt du noch, wie der Himmel aussieht? Du bist ein Tenor geworden!"

{BFA 1, 94). Baal's continued liaisons with women have weakened Baal's masculinity. Ekart's plea is marked with a sense of urgency because time is running out for this escape from civilization into untamed nature:

"Gottesacker im Wind und der Geruch der unendlichen Felder, vor sie abgehauen werden!"{BFA 1, 95). The nature which Baal had always assumed would be there after his time in the city is rapidly being destroyed by the lumberjacks. Charles Lyons wrote (in 1965):

the homosexuality also functions to project the chaotic, self- destructive quality of nature itself, for Ekart's temptation of Baal

40 is, essentially, a temptation to experience the sensations which nature provides in opposition to the specific pleasure provided by the female (316-17).

But Baal refuses Ekart's advance for the time, rejecting It like a savior on his

path to salvation, who must first undergo certain trials before accepting his

fate: "Es ist zu früh, Ekart! Es geht noch anders!"i^BFA 1, 95). But as we shall

see, "Ekart's fate is that of a Pied Piper who is killed by a rat, since it is he

who first challenges Baal to shake off the last vestiges of attachment to life in

the city in order to confront fully the oneness of life and death in nature"

(Speirs 26). Baal must first consume what he can of the women (and

Johannes) in society before following Ekart into the woods; once Baal enters

the woods, he will be on the final path to his eventual death and reunion with the nature from which he came.

Ekart wants to help Baal escape to the woods because he believes that

Baal's life in the city has led him to forget his true self and accept any experience as acceptable: "Tanz und Musik und Trinken! Regen bis auf die

Haut! Sonne bis auf die Haut! Finsternis und Licht! Weiber und Hunde! Bist du schon so verkommen?"i^BFA 1, 95). Baal's lack of discretion has led him into several situations which Ekart deems undesirable and Ekart hopes to save Baal from himself. What Ekart does not understand is that Baal is all about experience, that his is a life of appetite and satiation, in a never-ending cycle and each new experience allows Baal to continue living. It is stasis

41 which Baal most wants to avoid and Ekart's proposal to take Baal into the woods is another form of stasis being imposed on the constantly changing energy Baal embodies. Ekart, who shares externally Baal's artistic nature and talent, is unable to experience life in its fullness and hence is unable to experience Baal himself:

B a a l Leg deine Flosse auf meinen Schadel!Er schwillt mit jedem Pulsschlag und sackt wieder zusammen wie eine Blase. Spürst du es nicht mit der Hand? E k a r t Nein. B a a l D u verstehst nichts von meiner Seele. E k a r t Sollen wir uns nicht ins Wasser legen? B a a l Meine Seele, Bruder, ist das Achzen der Komfelder, wenn sie sich unter dem Wind walzen und das Funkein in den Augen zweier Insekten, die sich fressen wollen. E k a r t Ein julitolier Bursche mit unsterblichem Gedarm, das bist du. Ein KloB, der einst am Himmel Fettflecken hinterlaBt!{BFA 1/ 109)

The fundamental difference in how these two men view the world will inform their actions for the remainder of the play. Baal is able to declare love for a man who cannot understand his soul because he is love with everything in the natural environment outside of the city (Brown 19). In other words, Baal's love for Ekart is not so much of the man, but as a representative part of the whole "natural" experience outside of the city: "Du weiBt doch, daB ich dich liebe. Man riecht den Mist von den Feldern bis hier herüber"{BFA 1, 110).

Indeed, as Baal and Ekart escape the rain in a shack in the woods, Baal loses any interest for Ekart as a person when they are removed from direct contact with nature: "Du hast ein Gesicht, in dem viel Wind Platz hat. Konkav.Sieht

42 ihn an. Du hast gar kein Gesicht Du bist gar nichts. Du bist transparent"{BFA

1, 117). With these words, Baal consigns Ekart to the disposal heap of all his lovers with whom he has finished.

Baal's interest in Ekart is only revived after Ekart defends Sophie when she comes to visit Baal in her pregnant state. Baal tries to regain Ekart's affection in the same way that he seduced Sophie Barger earlier in the play: by invoking his animal-like musk: "Jetzt bist du an meiner Brust, riechst du mich? Jetzt halte ich dich, es gibt mehr als Weibemahe!"{BFA 1,120). This revived relationship, however, is different than it was at first; it is now based, as were Baal's other relationships, on a power differential. Baal has reduced

Ekart to having no existence outside of his own—Baal's love for him is all that constitutes Ekart's world (Goldstein 344). Ekart is to be fully initiated into the animal-like existence Baal leads in the woods: "Im Geholz gibt es Mulden, wo kein Wind hingeht. Komm, ich erzahle dir von den Tieren"{BFA 1, 120). The stage directions "Er zieht ihn fort" in the 1922 version{BFA 1, 120) were more indicative of Ekart's true attitude towards this situation: "Er [Baal] hat den Arm um Ekarts Schulter und zieht ihn fort nach rechts ab, der schweigend mitgeht"{BFA 1, 58). Ekart's silent acquiescence is that of a prey who knows he cannot escape as long as he and Baal remain in the woods.

But it is clear that they are no longer equals in this relationship; for Baal, it is still a matter of love, because he holds the power in the relationship.

43 B a al sitztim Laubwerk: Das Wasser ist warm. Auf dem Sand iiegt man wie Krebse. Dazu das Buschwerk und die weiBen Wolken am Himmel. Ekart! E k a r t verborgen Was willst du? B a a l Ich liebe dich. E k a r t Ich liege zu gut. B a al Hast du die Wolken vorhin gesehen? E k a r t Ja. Sie sind schamlos.SbUe. Vorhin ging ein Weib drüben vorbei. B aal Ich mag kein Weib mehr . . {BFA . 1 , 1 2 5 )

Baal's declaration of love, joined with his renunciation of women, arises out of a level of comfort with this situation. In other words, Baal's appetites seem to be sated on a permanent basis with this power-driven relationship between him and Ekart. But Baal's words and actions fail to move Ekart, who knows that he is in effect Baal's captive slave who can only hope to deviate Baal's attentions away from him to some other object. Ekart tries to point out a passing female, but Baal is too wrapped up in the moment to notice. This giving up of women and the maintenance of a homoerotic relationship also serves another purpose for Baal: it allows him to create lyrics, such as the

Ophelia song and the song about his death in the scene "Ahom im Wind".

This Is confirmed by Ekart's comments after the latter poem:

E k a r t nach einer Weile. In der letzten Zelt hast du viel Lyrik gemacht. Du hast wohl schon lange kein Weib mehr gehabt? B a al Warum? E k a rt Ich dachte esm ir. Sage nein. {BFA 1 ,1 3 0 )

44 However, Baal keeps Ekart as more than just a lyrical muse. Baal cannot

create when alone (as seen in the scene "Baal sitzt am Tisch"), instead, he

needs to have someone under his control to live his life to the fullest. It is the

full and rich life which gives Baal the inspiration to create poetry.

After Baal shares his Ophelia poem in the scene "Landstrasse.

Weiden," he does what Ekart had done in the previous scene: he points out a female passing by as a sort of test of Ekarfs affection. Ekart takes the chance to break free of Baal and shows interest in the woman. This arouses Baal's jealousy, which builds more and more as the end of the piece approaches.

First, Baal asks almost innocently: "1st sie schoner als ich?"{.BFA 1 ,1 2 7 ).

Then he accuses Ekart of turning his back on the carefree existence they had led in the woods by returning to a baser biological level: "Er wird zu durchsichtig. Er befleckt sich. Er ftillt zurück in die Zoologie"{BFA 1, 127)

W.A. Steer writes that "[tjhis disgust with heterosexuality (and idealization of homosexuality) is the inevitable consequence of his ruthlessly physical eroticism" (48). However, Baal's reaction is based more on a disgust for

Ekart's demonstrating the same disregard for his lovers (i.e. Baal) that Baal has shown for his. In other words, Ekart is acting just as Baal has. After

Baal's image of the idyllic homoerotic relationship is shattered, his old appetite returns with a fury. First, he rapes (and possibly murders) a woman in the scene "Junge Haselstraucher," a woman who has come to see Ekart

45 and is presumably Ekart's new girlfriend. Then, Ekart notices that Baal has

taken on the obesity of one who follows his appetites too much, leading to

eventual physical ruin: "Du überfriBt dich, Baal. Du wirst platzen" and "Du

muBt dich in acht nehmen. Du bist so schwer, Baal"i^BFA 1,128).

The final scenes take place some eight years after the beginning of the

play, first returning to theBranntweinschenke Emilie was humiliated.

The return to the city is occasioned by the death of Baal's mother, a death which foreshadows Baal's own imminent death. Johannes is there, now a bitter twenty-five year old alcoholic who has been reduced to an anonymous existence on the fringes of city society. He insists that Baal not call him by name: "Keine Namen! Man kennt sich"{BFA 1,132). Ekart is immediately discomforted by the situation (and apparently Johannes' presence) and wants to return to the woods, where at least he knows the nature of his relationship with Baal: "Ich will jetzt wieder in den Waldem sein, in der FrCihe! Das Licht ist zitronenfart)en zwischen den Stammen! Ich will wieder in die Walder hinauf' {BFA 1,132). Ekart does not demonstrate any fear of the situation and how the changed circumstances may further complicate his relationship with Baal. Baal asks Ekart to affirm his friendship, but only moments later

Ekart is seen with a waitress on his lap. Ekart asks, naively but foolishly,

"Warum soil ich keine Weiber haben?"{BFA 1, 133). Ekart assumes that the rules of his relationship with Baal only apply in the woods and, once they are

46 in the city, that Ekart is free to pursue whomever he wishes. Ekart does not understand how what he sees as an innocent flirtation would jeopardize his status as Baal's lover. He even asks "Bin ich dein Geliebter?"i^BFA 1,133) as

Baal comes to strangle him. Ekart "is killed because he refused to submit to

Baal at a time when Baal's vital energies were waning" (Speirs 23).

Baal's will to live is broken by this final act of murder. Previously, he had discarded of his female victims because his appetites had been temporarily satisfied and he no longer had a use for them. His murder of

Ekart, however, arose both out of jealousy and as a reaction to another's opposition to Baal's claim on his self. Ekart's protest "Warum soil ich keine

Weiber haben?" carried an obvious answer to Baal. There was no room in

Baal's self-conception for an other to stand in opposition to his wishes and, to

Baal, this was a sign of his own imminent demise—when Baal can no longer hold others entranced by his power, he knows that he is on his way to death.

His murder of Ekart is the final step in this decline of his vital energies, a process which started from the moment he left his mother's womb and began a life so filled with pain:

Oh, ihr, die ihr aus Himmel und Hdlle vertrieben! Ih r Morder, denen viel Leides geschah! Warum seid ihr nicht im SchoB eurer Mütter geblieben? Wo es stille war und man schlief und warda... {^BFA 1,133)

47 With Ekart's death and the decline of Baal's energies, his death approaches.

Baal has lived his life to its fullest and now he must succumb to the inevitable return to earth, as was sung in the Chorale:

Unter düstem Stemen in dem Jammertal Grast Baal weite Felder schmatzend ab. Sind sie leer, dann trottet singend Baal In den ewigen Wald zum Schlaf hinab.

Und wenn Baal der dunkle SchoB hinunter zieht: Was ist Welt fur Baal noch? Baal ist satt {^BFA 1, 86)

Baal does not approach his death with regret—indeed, he accepts it as the natural result of total satiety and the end result of so much living on the edge. As he lies dying in the final scene, Baal evaluates his life: "Es war sehr schon" {^BFA 1,137). As Vincent Günther writes, "[d]as Individuum, das die

Erfahrung gemacht hat, daB es sich nicht mehr selbst besbmmen kann, ist einverstanden mit seinem Untergang" (509). Baal is not a tragic hero who struggles against his inevitable death, for indeed, "Baal's death is not meaningful, as in a tragedy, but simply the last event in a series" (Brown 20).

In the 1922 version, Baal accepts his death, not in a resigned nor a joyful manner; he remains neutral and objective about the inevitable end of his existence. In an earlier version (1919), Baal strives to maintain his hold on life no matter what:

48 Sterben? Ich lasse mich nicht überreden. Ich wehre mich bis aufs Messer. Ich will nicht ohne Haut leben. Ich ziehe mich in die Zehen zurück. Ich falle wie ein Stier. Es mu6 noch GenuB sein im Sichkrümmen. Ich glaube an kein Fortleben und bin aufs Hiesige angewiesen.i^BFA 1, 55)

Baal may recognize that his death is inevitable, but he wants an ideal death; he does not want to die alone and in the lumberjacks' shack away from nature. He makes the vain request for someone to stay with him as he dies, but dying, Baal no longer holds any attraction for those around him, for his former attraction was based on his vital energies and an appetite-driven life.

In his final monologue, Baal takes the role of both the dying man and the one keeping watch:

Ich werde hinausgehen. Lieber Baal.Scharf. Ich bin keine Ratte. Es muB drauBen hell sein. Lieber Baal. Zur Tur kommt man ncxih. Knie hat man ncxzh, in der Tur ist es besser. Verflucht! Lieber Baal! Er kriecht auf alien vieren zur Schwelle. Sterne . . . hm. Er kriecht hinaus. {BFA 1 0 ,1 3 7 )

As Baal crawls out to meet his end, his death is truly insignificant to those around him, even though Baal tries to protest: "Ich bin keine Ratte"{BFA 1,

137). But Baal's death may just as well be that of a rat, for once the vitality is extinguished, no one cares about his fate.

49 CHAPTER 2

EXISTENTIAL STRUGGLE IM DICKICHTDER STÀDTE

Brecht's play Im Dickicht{\dX.er Im Dickicht der StâdteŸ continues many of the themes he explored in his earlier Baal.play Shlink, a well- established experienced capitalist in Chicago, has made his fortune in the lumber business, repeating the theme of environmental exploitation from

Baa! Shlink, despite the outward signs of success, finds his life marked with an absence. In this play, he is seeking "emotional intensity, a transgression of the abstraction, objectification and interchangeability that characterize

Interpersonal relationships under capitalism" (Fraunhofer 129). For Baal, this vitality came naturally and there was no other option; for Shlink, on the other hand, an intense life of varied and rich experience is only possible after casting off the trappings of capitalist success. But unlike Baal, Shlink is not a

' The first version, known asIm Dickicht, was written in the period between September 1921 and April 1922. Brecht's original version was revised together with Lion Feuchtwanger before its première in Munich's Residenz-Theater on May 9, 1923. The play was revised again and retitledIm Dickicht der Stadte^QT publication in the Propylaen-Veriag in 1926. It is this latter version which provides the basis for most of the discussion below; reference will be made to the earlier version when appropriate.

50 man of great appetite seeking to maximize experience even if that experience is distasteful. Shlink is more calculating in his search for a fuller existence, as is reflected in the structure of the play, which shows the methodical and deliberate nature of Shlink's actions.

A second commonality between ^a/andIm Dickicht comes In the privileged status accorded homosexual relationships. Both Baal and Shlink fall in love with (or better, become obsessed with) members of their own sex whom they perceive as slighter, more passive individuals. Baal eventually murders Ekart when he finds he cannot control every moment of the young composer's life. Shlink is drawn to the aesthete George Garga because Garga has been able to remain aloof from the allures of the capitalist economic system. For Shlink, a life lived to its fullest is possible only outside the constraints of capitalism and he needs someone unaffected by the siren call of economic success to take him there. This does not mean, however, that the libidinal economy of capitalism is absent—indeed, Shlink has to bring

Garga through capitalism in order for the "utopian potential" (Fraunhofer 126) of a homoerotic relationship to be achieved. Shlink and Garga use women as exchange objects to seal their homoerotic bond (Fraunhofer 126). Thus,

Shlink and Garga replicate the competitive struggle of capitalism on a

51 personal level as a step on the way to a purer existence where life is a struggle for survival uninhibited by the deforming constraints of bourgeois life.

Homosocial bonds are created and tested according to two different models. Within the confines of the capitalist economic system, women are bartered as commodities in order to establish or strengthen relationships among men. Once stripped of the economic and legal constraints on their actions, men outside of the system create bonds based out of mutual respect for brute, animal strength. Men reenact the struggle for survival of the fittest, sometimes resulting in death of the weaker fighter, and sometimes resulting in a draw, in which the weaker fighter offers his respect and submission. For these men, fighting is "fast als eroti'sches, nicht eigentlich als gesellschaftliches Phanomen: oft ziellos, die Ziele meist sekundar" (Kreutzer

320). Indeed, the greatest moments of intimacy between Shlink and Garga will come at the height of the battle. By stripping male-male relationships of their societal baggage, Brecht reveals how little humankind has really advanced in evolutionary terms. Even though we are presented with "den unerklarlichen Ringkampf zweier Menschen," Brecht admonishes us in the

Vorspruch to the 1927 version:

52 Zerbrechen Sie sich nicht den Kopf über die Motive dieses Kampfes, sondem beteiligen Sie sich an den menschlichen Einsatzen, beurteilen Sie unparteiisch die Kampfform der Gegner und lenken Sie Ihr Intéressé auf das Finish.{BFA 1, 438)

And yet this fight is not without motive—Brecht wants us to apply the same

standards of judgment used in boxing matches or in business decisions and

judge the action of the play with a cold, calculating precision so that we may

understand the brutality which makes the foundation of our lives. Christoph

Perels explains that

Motive in dieser Auseinandersetzung eine ganz untergeordnete Rolle spielen. Als die Lebensform im Dickicht der Stadte schlechthin, laBt der Kampf nicht einmal Gefuhle der Feindschaft zu: sie hoben ja zwei einzelne Kampfer aus der Menge aller Kampfenden heraus, individualisierten sie und banden sie auf eine spezifische Art aneinander. Die miteinander Kampfenden sind so wenig Freunde, wie sie Feinde sind—sie messen ihre Krafte aneinander, méhr scheint da nicht zu sein. (77)

Fighting for its own sake gives these men a vitality otherwise lacking in their

lives because it allows them to establish transgressive relationships, which

constitute liminal experiences while putting their lives ip danger. This reflects

the desire among many men of the period, as Michael Kane notes, for "direct,

unmediated experiences" (169). Writing of World War I, E.J. Leed notes that

"[t]he insatiable desire for authenticity, for a direct confrontation of human

wills, dominated the enthusiasm for war and shaped the expectations of

those who went into combat just as it was present in the enormous appetite

53 of the age for any relic of authentic (preindustrial) life or for anything that

Imitated organic forms or materials" (63). Boxing represented for Brecht the ultimate act nonsensical In the eyes of bourgeois decency and propriety.^ As with Baal, a sense of thrill and Imminence of death makes the moments of life remaining all that more Intense.

The battle between Shlink and Garga Is constituted along the lines of the boxing matches which so fascinated Brecht In the 1920's and which featured prominently In many of his works from this period. In Its way, boxing represented for Brecht the Ideal kind of struggle, one with both set rules and yet unconditional. The boxers are acting within the constraints of their role as boxers—they have no personal animosity against their opponent, and yet, they are expected to fight this opponent to the bitter end, the knockout. As

Gunter W itt explains:

Der bedlngungslose Kampf elnes jeden gegen jeden, der zur Zerstorung und Selbstzerstorung der MItglleder der Gesellschaft führen wIrd, der kelnen Ausweg kennt, wIrd durch den Boxkampf verslnnblldllcht, der mit dem totalen k.o. zu enden habe und In dem der Sleg nicht durch Hllfe von au6en Oder faule Kompromlsse, verglelchbar mit der Punktezahlung durch Richter auSerhalb des Boxrings, festgestellt werden kdnne. (218-219)

2 Compare "Der Kinnhaken"{BFA 19, 205-9), a story written by Brecht about 1925 and published inScheii's Magazin in January 1926. The story ends with the boxer, the narrator of the story, declaring "‘Ein Mann soil immer das tun, wozu er Lust hat. Nach meiner Ansicht. Wissen Sie, Vorsicht ist die Mutter des {BFAk.o."’ 19, 209).

54 Ironically, this kind of unconditional battle to the finish, Brecht argues in this

play, can never come to a conclusion. As Shlink says at the end of the 1927

version: "Der SchluB ist nicht das Ziel, die letzte Episode nicht wichtiger als

irgendeine andere"{^BFA 1,490). The struggle so constitutive of the capitalist

metropolis can never end because of the "unendliche Vereinzelung des

Menschen" which makes "eine Feindschaft zum unerreichbaren {BFA Ziel" 1,

491). And thus we never get the k.o., the final blow which will end the struggle between Garga and Shlink; instead, the battle ends with a resigned draw, "emphasizing the impossibility of transversing the utter Isolation that separates human beings" (Walker 124). A draw is, of course, not a win for either party. This existential struggle between two human beings, Brecht argues in this play, is central to life. Once the s^ggle is over, so is life itself, as Shlink discovers when he concedes his inability to win at the end of play.

The struggle between Shlink and Garga takes place in two locales: the jungle of the metropolis marked by the deindividualization and dehumanization of a mass society and the wide-openPmrie^L the fringe of society. In effect, this is a play about a frontier existence, a "Wild West,"

(Seliger 23) so to speak, where lawlessness and unbridled ambition dominate.

The societal rules no longer apply to either locale, even though they still wield a residual effect in the continued re-creation of the homosocial triad. Two concepts are at the heart of Brecht^s conception of place in this play:Prarie

55 and DschungeL The latter Is exhibited more in the physical description o f the

city given in the stage directions and in the comments of the characters at

various points. As Marie describes the woods with its sick trees in the ninth

scene of the 1923 version C'Geholz): "Die Baume wie mit Menschenkot

behangen, der Himmel nah zum Langen, wie gleichgültig er mich laBt"{^BFA

1, 400). Even though the play is ostensibly set in Chicago, it is more accurate

to state that in the 1923 version the play is set on the fringes of the city, in various settings such as "Im Steinbruch," "Geholz," and "Im Dickicht". Brecht

positions the truly lawless zone in the city at its edges, where it meets up with the great unknown prairie. This choice of liminal regions also seems to reflect the threshold experiences had by the members of the Garga family as they cross from poor, if morally respectable, outsiders to fully integrated denizens of the city/jungle. These liminal regions of the city are replaced in the 1927 version with more concrete and more central locations, indicating a shift on Brecht's part from a vision o f the city as wide-open frontier. The play is marked by a number of other liminal regions, in particular the repeated motif of the skin (and, by extension, clothing and the face) as the sole physical barrier between two human beings in this jungle where identities seem fluid and in the end are proved non-existent (Winnacker 64). Indeed, this reflects Brecht's journal entry as he began the writing process: "Dabei gehe ich ganz lassig vor, indem ich mich nicht zu früh festiege. Erst nach der

56 halben ersten Szene konzipiere ich G. Garga volllg. [...] Allés ist im FluB, ich liebe das Ungefôhr" (16 September 1921,BFA 26, 237). Brecht is acting as an experimenter here, creating a space for them to interact as men stripped of their social baggage. This method, of course, reflects the experimental nature of Brecht's work itself.

The concept of "Prarie" is used by Brecht to indicate an open space where the right between men can occur outside of the laws of society, in effect a tabula rasa free from social constraints (Schmid 34). As Helfried

Seliger describesPrarie, it is the

Existenzkampf des einzelnen, wobei jedes Mittel gutgeheiBen wird, Solange es den gewünschten Erfolg zeitigt. Diesem verbissenen Kampf bis aufs Letzte widmet man sich notgedrungen und trotzdem emprindet man eine gewisse Genugtuung und Freude dabei. (23)

Indeed, it is important to recognize that the participants in the struggle of the

Prarie are not necessarily willing participants—they have been forced by the necessities of their existence to take up the right for their survival. And yet, a certain satisfaction can come from fighting a good right and knowing that one has done his best in the right for survival. As John Walker states, existence in this "utopia of anarchic and bestial violence" is "validated exclusively by moments of highest passion and fiercest energy", manifested in "atavistic frenzies of destruction" (124). ThisPrarie is inhabited by the "harte, pragmatische, illusionslose Mensch [...], das Individuum, das sich trotz oder

57 gerade wegen seiner Wurzellosigkeit und seines Nichtgebundenseins im

realen Lebenskampf behauptet" (Seliger 44). When Garga comes to accept

Shlink's challenge, he says:

Garga Sie haben Prarie gemacht. Ich veriange freies Feld. Shlink Sie nehmen den Kampf auf? Garga Aug um Aug, Zahn um Zahn. {BFA 1, 358)

Later in the same scene, Garga's sister Marie asks him for help as she realizes

what is about to happen to them and he replies: "Ich bin allein in der Prarie

und kann nichts fur dich tun" {BFA 1, 361). In this open space of the prairie, just as in the western frontier of the United States, family relationships

become meaningless and one is left to fend for one's own self in the "prairie."

Ulrich Schmid argues quite convincingly that Brecht was fascinated with the depictions of America found in Karl May's works, and Brecht's conception of

"Prarie" owes much to May:

Aus dem Bürgersohn Berthold Eugen wird ein indianischer Stammeshaupding, die bürgerlich-banale Augsburger Vorstadt wandelt sich zu einer Gegenwelt, Prarie oder Oschungel voll unabsehbarer Abenteuer, wo nur Tamung, List und volliges Ausldschen des eigenen Ichs das Überleben sichem, etwa beim unbemerkten Beschleichen des ahnungslosen Feinds. (32)

And yet, even though one stands alone in the prairie, one is surrounded by thousands of others in exactly the same predicament. This is evidence of what Walter Benjamin calls "[djas unergrundliche Dunkel des Massendaseins"

{Baudelaire 64). Even though Brecht took great pains to distance himself from

58 the Expressionists, he nonetheless shared a horror and a fascination with

modem urban existence. As John Walker writes of Expressionist-era

depictions of the city,

the metropolis confronts the subject as an alien force that continuously threatens any vestige of individual autonomy. The harsh juxtaposition of wounded subjectivity with the chaos of commerce, the cacophony of technologies, and the utterly inhuman industrial backgrounds exhibits the dissolution of social community into scattered and disconnected fragments. (119)

Walker then goes on to say in an inherent contradiction that the

arbitrary violence and apparent lawlessness of city life create an atmosphere of anarchy that recalls social configurations of tribal warfare. Economic imperatives that set individuals in hostile competition replicate primeval conditions where survival is bas^ on a struggle against all others. (120)

Tribal warfare, to the contrary, would seem to be the essence of organized

warfare where the individual warrior gives up his individual desires for

survival and success to the greater good of his society. The primeval kind of warfare depicted in the pieces suchDickicht\s as even more essential, more

post-societal in that the opponents tight only for themselves and their own survival. There are no outside interests mitigating their motives and actions— it is fighting in and of itself. Hence, I think Walker's metaphor of tribal warfare does not work; in fact, much of modem literature is about the dissolution of the tribe (in the more modem guise of the family and the nation) into increasingly petty self-interested individuals who tight for their survival on an animal level. This reduction to the animalistic is even indicated

59 by the names of the various characters which Inhabit the city-jungle:Pavian

(baboon), M ^ /7 7 7 (worm), Bar {bear), X/% (monkey); even Shlink's name

Implies a snake-llke nature,

George Garga at the beginning of the play Is an Idealistic naif and a

recent arrival with his family "aus dem flachen Land" {BFA 1, 440) outside of

Chicago. Life In the city, however, has not proved to be a success for the

Garga family: "der Vater arbeitslos seine Tage vertrinkend, die Mutter durch

Wascharbelt frühzeltig verbraucht, der Sohn mit klelnem Verdlenst die Famille erhaltend—, so vegetieren sie" In the city (Bahr 70). Garga works at Charles

Maynes' rental library for a pittance, a wage with which his family "emahrt sich von faulen FIschen" and "schlaft zu dritt neben elnem geplatzten

AusguBrohr" {BFA 1, 440). Garga's existence In the city Is hardly Ideal; he has to smoke at night In order to deaden his sensations and go to sleep{BFA 1,

440). And yet, Garga manages to carry on because he has "trotz seiner widrigen Lebensumstande elnen naiven Ideallsmus, ein empfindllches

Ehrgefühl und elnen Hang zum Traumen" (Bahr 72). This ability to dream Is reflected In his passion for literature, especially escapist literature which allows him to flee from the horrors of his own urban life Into a simpler life conceptualized with the word "Tahiti".^ Garga dreams of "das elnfache Leben" where one "lebt wie eine Eldechse"{BFA 1,141). This active fantasy life

60 keeps Garga from fully integrating as he keeps his focus on the hope of a

richer, more fulfilled life than the one offered within the capitalist economy.

Garga spends his waking hours dreaming of an escape from his dreary

existence. Garga's dream of a simpler life, encoded in the word "Tahiti," is

augmented by his frequent repetition of quotations or paraphrases from

Arthur Rimbaud's poetry.^ The use of Rimbaud is encoded as a "chiffre de

l'exotisme, de la révolte individuelle et de l'indépendance, " which "exprime

clairement sa volonté de réaliser la rupture avec la groupe" (Silhouette 305).

Brecht consciously uses Rimbaud because of his well-known relationship with the older Paul Verlaine, "a male sadomasochistic relationship, serving as a contradiction to the traditional conventions of marriage and the family unit"

(Case, "Brecht and Women" 70). Rimbaud represented for Brecht the vitality and escapism which he wanted to lend his character Garga. As Brecht wrote in a journal entry on 4 October 1921: "Ich walze den Rimbaud-Band und mache einige Anieihen. Wie glühend dies allés ist! Leuchtendes Papier! Und er hat Schultern von Erz! — Immer, wenn ich arbeite, wenn die Lava flieBt, sehe ich das Abendland in düstern Feuem und glaube an seine Vitalitat"i^BFA

26, 248). When Garga is fired from his job at the library, his ties to his former

^ Brecht's choice of Tahiti was probably influenced by his reading of Paul Gaugin's letters in June 1921 (Hecht 119;BFA 28, 119 (nr. 112)).

^ For more information on the Rimbaud influence, see Silhouette, 301-322, and Tabbert- Jones, 91-112. Brecht used lines from Rimbaud which appeared Miinchner in Blatter fiir

61 life are severed. Shlink warns that the economic basiso f Garga's life is threatened: "Ihre Wirtschaftliche Existenz! Beachten Sie Ihre Plattform! Sie schwankt!" (0F/4 445), but Garga no longer cares. Garga literally strips himself of the constraints of his life as he reacts automatically to the threat to his dream of Tahiti (Silhouette 308) with what must seem to him to be words of revolution from Rimbaud:

Das ist die Freiheit. Hier meinen Rock!Er zieht ihn aus. Verteilt ihn! Greift ein Buch aus dem Regal.'^Na^\Xerei\ Lüge! Unzucht! Ich bin ein Tier, aber vielleicht bin ich gerettet. Ihr seid falsche Neger, Wahnsinnige, Wilde, Geizige! Kaufmann, du bist Neger, General, du bist Neger. Kaiser, du alter Aussatz, du bist Neger, hast von nicht besteuertem Likor getrunken aus Satans Fabrik. Dies Volk, von Fieber und Krebs begeistert!Tnnkt. Ich bin unbewandert in der Metaphysik, ich verstehe die Gesetze nicht, habe keine Moral, bin ein roher Mensch. Ihr int!"{BFA 445; quotation marks in original; stage directions italicized as in original)

Garga, who "equates his freedom with the abolition of his inherited civilization and a renewed identification with the primeval beast' (Walker 123), would like to think of himself as a man free from constraints, that he, like Baal, lives the life of a poet-rebel on the fringe of society, but Garga is not an artist. His lyrical outburst is "nur angelesen" and Garga does not possess the ability,

"sein Lebensgefühl unmittelbar und spontan zu artikulieren" (Joost 113).

Dichtuung und Graphik, 11/12 (December 1919); the lines were originally publishedUne in saison enenfer{XSTi) and Les IHuminadons{1^7). 62 Garga is also the epitome of a brash, youthful genius, much as Brecht might

have seen himself, but also insufficiently grounded in reality like an

Expressionist, as Brecht wrote on 5 October 1921:

Es ware nobg, Garga zu einem Genie zu machen. Denn sonst wird er zu einem Preiskampfer. Er darf nicht nur kampfen, muB rauchen, Kinderei treiben, sich interessieren. Seine Ausdruckskraft genCigt nicht. Es muB sein Handein sein. Eine gewisse Überiegenheit, kindlicher Zynismus, Lassigkeit! Er muB langsam gehen, faul, revolubonar, brutal,, mit groBen Gliedem. Die groBen Dialoge sind vollkommen metaphysisch, ihre Leibhaftigkeit und Durchblutung das Ergebnis der LeidenschafWichkeit, mit der dieser Kampf gefuhrt wird. Auch mache ich keine Gesichter, sondem Gesichte. Hier Iiegt der eigenOiche Expressionismus! Nicht Krafte in Menschengestalten, sondem Menschen als geistige Wesen!{^BFA 26, 249)

Garga's use of Rimbaud resembles more of a liturgical invocation or charm

which he calls upon in threatening moments. Garga would like to think of

himself as an animal without emotional connections to those around him, a

state of uncivilization perceived by Garga as a desirable state. Garga

recognizes that the laws of economic necessity will force him to accept

Shlink's challenge to the fight because he has no other way to achieve his

own goal. "Tahiti" can only be achieved by passing through and then

discarding the stages of capitalism.

Even though Shlink has undertaken much research into Garga's

character before approaching him in the rental library, Garga and the

audience neither know much about Shlink's character other than what is eventually revealed by him in his words and actions. Shlink is a Malaysian

63 immigrant who has worked steadily for the past forty years to establish his

place in the business world of Chicago. Shlink represents the classic founding myth of capitalism; "aus dem tiefsten Elendzu Reichtum und Macht" (Joost

110). Shlink has mastered the ways of the economic system which has provided him so much but at the price of his "totale Selbstentfremdung"

(Joost 110). Shlink has worked hard to develop the impenetrable nature necessary for success in the economic sphere, but he says:

Mein Korper 1st wie taub, davon wird sogar meine Haut betroffen. Die Menschenhaut im naturlichen Zustande 1st zu dünn fur diese Welt, deshalb sorgt der Mensch dafür, daB sie dicker wird. Die Methode ware unanfechtbar, wenn man das Wachstum stoppen konnte. Ein Stuck prapariertes Leder zum Beispiel bleibt, aber eine Haut wachst, sie wird dicker und dicker. (B F /11, 462)

Shlink is trapped by his own hardened skin, a "corporealizabon of interiority," a physical manifestation of the "dehumanization necessitated by economic objectification [which] colonizes all other spheres of personal life as well"

(Walker 122). Shlink has "nichts als dies hier"(SF4 1, 453), but the material wealth represented in his successful business and other possessions do not give Shlink the vitality which is lacking from his life. Like Puntila much later on in Brecht's work, the capitalist Shlink has become separated from the pleasures life can offer. When one receives everything one could want, a lazy state of dependency develops. Hence Shlink seeks the fight to restore a sense of vitality, as Otto Best describes it, "[d]en Geschmack des Todes'

64 wünscht er sich auf die Zunge, [er] sucht RealitatsgewiSheit durch

Wlderstandserlebnis" (134). Like Baal, Shlink seeks to enhance his experience

of life by seeking thrills which his role in the economic system does not

permit him.

Shlink corresponds to a European stereotype of the Asian, particularly

in the passive way that he wages his battle against Garga (Seliger 35). Shlink

undertakes a campaign of what Seliger calls "geisbge Vergewaltigung" by

challenging Garga with apparent passivism. This passive warfare is

characterized by "eine unerklarliche Aufdringlichkeit," as seen in the first

scene, which "im anderen das Bedürfhis erweckt, den unbekannten Gegner

kennenzulemen." It is also marked by "Manovieren und Manipulieren der

Handlungen des Gegners" based on "ein genaues Studium der Personlichkeit"

of the enemy. Finally, Shlink neutralizes undesirable outcomes "durch ihre

Prophezeiung und Vorwegnahme" (Seliger 43-44). This passive manner of warfare was, especially in the earlier versions of the piece, considered to be a sign of the racial differences between Garga and Shlink, where Brecht

"verallgemeinerte und zugleich typisierte" the character differences between the two men into "Rasseneigenschaften" (Seliger 36). By the 1927 version, this "Asian" character of Shlink had become nominal, when it was sufficient

"das Asiatentum des Shlink durch einen schlichten gelben Anstrich anzudeuten" (Æ64 24, 29); in all other aspects, the actor playing Shlink is

65 allowed "sich zu benehmen wie ein Asiate, namlich wie ein Europaer. Damit würde schonein groBes Geheimnis aus dem Stuck femgehaiten"{BFA 24, 29, emphasis in original). This corresponds to Brecht's later concern that the

German audiences not view this piece as an exotic exception set in a fiar-off place (America) with even more exotic characters. For indeed, Brecht argues in 1927, this piece goes beyond its apparent cultural and temporal specificity.

The choice of America was to prevent the immediate dismissal of this play as trivial: "In deutschem Milieu waren diese Typen romantisch: Sie hatten sich bloB in einem Gegensatz zu ihrer Umgebung befunden, statt im Gegensatz zu einem romantischen Publikum" which would have dismissed a Berliner who acted in such a way as "eine Ausnahmeerscheinung"{BFA 24, 29). But this fight in which the opponents are embroiled is not an exception, indeed, Shlink and Garga, in Brecht's later view, involved in the "wichtigsten aller zeitgemâBen Kampfe, dem Klassenkampf"{,BFA 24, 28).

Shlink entices Garga into this "idealen Kampf"{^BFA 24, 28) "durch ein geistiges System scheinbarer Passivitat" by which he cuts "die Stricke, die den jungen George Garga mit der Umwelt verbinden"{^BFA 24, 25). Thus

Garga is forced to undertake "einen verzweifelten Freiheitskampf gegen das urn ihn dichter und dichter werdende Dickicht Shlinkscher Intrigen"{BFA 24,

25). Shlink, who has sacrificed everything for the successes he has enjoyed, finds Garga's existence to be a provocation and an opportunity. Even if it is

66 tenuous, Garga has somehow managed to maintain a hold on some sense of personal integrity and is able to escape the horrifying banality of urban existence with his active fantasy life (Joost 110). He even has the ability to indulge his

Garga [...] Gewohnheit, einige Wochen gleichzeitig zu trinken, zu lieben und zu rauchen. Shlink Und das Konversationslexikon durchzublattem ... Garga Die Wissenschaft auf dem Ledersofa. Shlink Sie trinken. Sie aiteiten fur Ihre Familie vier Wochen wie ein Pferd und kommen so leicht nach Tahiti ... auf dem Sofa. iBFA 1, 357-358)

This exchange from the 1923 version was reduced to the first two lines in

1927, but Shlink was given the added, telling line: "Als ich von Ihren

Gewohnheiten horte, dachte ich: ein guter KampfeT'{^BFA 1, 448). Shlink is attracted to Garga's curiosity which has managed to continue existing in the cruel world of the city.

Garga's aestheticism is at the beginning of the play exploited by

Maynes, the bookseller who employs Garga. Giving opinions about books is a part of selling and marketing books, but when Shlink offers to pay him for his opinion, Garga refuses: "Ich verkaufe Ihnen die Ansichten von Mister V.

Jensen und Mister Arthur Rimbaud, aber ich verkaufen Ihnen nicht meine

Ansicht darüber" {BFA 1, 439). Shlink's proposal violates the economic relationship which Garga has with his employer. But selling these opinions to others would amount to prostitution in Garga's mind—as he protests, "Ich bin

67 keine Prostituierte"{^BFA 1, 440). The selling of opinions would be an unwelcome feminization of his role. Garga is quite willing to sell the opinions of others, authors such as Jensen and Rimbaud who intentionally published their ideas for others to read. But Garga's opinions are his own, in a sense his only piece of private property and he will not sell them. His opinions, his intellectual property,* are the most precious thing in his life and possibly his only source of pleasure: Tch leiste mir aber Ansichten"i^BFA 1, 440). That

Garga allows himself intellectual pleasures is a sign of his naivete, of his having "die Rolle des weltffemden Jünglings" (Bahr 73). As Skinny comments: "DaB Sie Ansichten haben, das kommt, weil Sie nichts vom Leben verstehen"i^BFA 440). Garga's position does not allow him the pleasure of having opinions. As Jorg-Wilhelm Joost explains, Garga "hat das Prinzip der

GroBstadt, die universelle Verdinglichung aller Beziehungen zu Waren, noch nicht realisiert und besteht auf der Freiheit der Meinung als einem unverzichtbaren Recht der Individualitat, die sich nicht 'prostituieren' laBt"

(109). Shlink, for whom Garga's "Ansicht ist gleichgültig, auBer, daB ich sie kaufen will" {^BFA 1, 440), has come here to declare war on Garga, to strip him of all that he treasures: "an diesem Vormittag, der nicht wie immer ist, eroffne ich den Kampf gegen Sie. Ich beginne ihn damit, daB ich Ihre

68 Plattform erschûttere"{BFA 1, 4 4 1 ). But Garga is the most unwilling

opponent, refusing in this first scene to sell his opinion even when all of the

things he most loves are mentioned:

Maynes Sie sind ein Narr und Waschlappen, ein phlegmatischer Kuli. Bedenken Sie doch... Skinny Ihre unschuldigen, gramgebeugten Eltem! Der W urm Ihre Schwester! Der Pavian Ihre Geliebte! Das hubsche junge Madchen hier! Garga Nein! Nein! Nein! Sh u n k Tahiti! Garga Ich lehne es ab.{BFA 445 )

Garga, when confronted with the "Verhaltnisse des Planeten"{BFA 1,445),

still refuses to sell. The mention of the various members of his family does

not give him enough reason to sell. Shlink, however, knows Garga's one point of vulnerability and invokes "Tahiti," together with all of its associations.

The burden of familial obligations, a remnant of his former life in the country, is keeping Garga from entering the path to "Tahiti," which can be achieved only after the "Fessein seiner kleinbürgeriichen Existenz" (Bahr 73) are eliminated. Shlink makes Garga's family the battlefield, "indem er mit der asiatischen Kampfform scheinbarer Passivitat Gargas Platz als Ernahrer der

Familie besetzt, bis der Gegner sich seiner Sozialisation entfremdet hat"

(Joost 111). As was the case for Baal, the family represents for Garga stasis, a similar deadening of vitality which Shlink has experienced. The economic demands of family life prevent the hard-working man from gaining freedom:

69 Wir Sind nicht frei. Mit Kaffee am Morgen fsngt es an und mit Schlagen, wenn man ein Affe ist, und die Tranen der Mutter salzen den Kindem die Mahlzeit und ihr Schweifi wascht ihnen das Hemd, und man ist gesichert bis in die Eiszeit und die Wurzel sitzt im Herz. Und ist er ausgewachsen und will etwas tun mit Haut und Haar, dann ist er bezahit, eingeweiht, abgestempelt, verkauft zu hohem Preis, und er hat keine Freiheit, unterzugehen.i^BFA 1, 456)

The social structure of the family does not allow Garga the freedom to "fail," to disappear from society and go to "Tahiti." Garga's idealism will lead to the eventual demise of his family, as Shlink states: "Die Familienkatastrophe ist unaufhaltsam. Nur Sie verdienen, und Sie leisten sich Ansichten. Fahren Sie lieber gleich nach Tahiti"{^BFA 1, 442). Garga is the sole economic support for his family, but he fails even in this task because he does not approach it with a singular mind. His thoughts are always on "Tahiti" and he allows himself the pleasure of "Ansichten." How could such a man succeed in keeping his family together in the cold atmosphere of the city? Garga's utopia cannot continue to exist in the harsh reality of city life; either Garga will have to remove himself immediately (which he is not in a position to do) or he will have to give up his dreams. Garga considers a final attempt to escape his entanglement with Shlink, as noted when he invites his mother to join him in the south:

Garga Ich bitte dich, mit mir nach dem Süden zu gehen. Ich arbeite dort, ich kann Baume fôllen. Wir machen einen Blockhaus, und du kochst mir. Ich brauche dich notwendig. Mae Wohin sagst du das? In den Wind?{BFA 1, 457)

70 His mother shows insight Into the nature of Shlink's fight and recognizes that

Garga's plan to escape will not be successful. Nonetheless she packs his things and sends Garga on his way. Just as in the first scene, Garga is unable to escape the tangled web created by Shlink. There, he tries to shed the physical markers of his membership in society, his clothes, boots and his girlfriend: "Ja, ich versteigere diese Frau! Ich werfe euch diese Papiere um die Ohren! Ich bitte um Virginiens Tabakfelder und um ein Billett nach den

Inseln. Ich bitte, Ich bitte um meine Freiheit"{^BFA 1, 446). But Garga's words are a desperate final invocation of his dreams just before he has decided to give them up and accept Shlink's challenge. They are words of despair and protest at the inevitability of his having to enter into the duel. The first scene ends with the acknowledgment that Shlink and his cohorts have achieved their goal. They have sufficiently unsettled Garga from his naive idealism that he is ready to enter the fight: "Endlich ist er aus der Haut gefahren"{BFA 1,

446). Gisela Bahr maintains that at this moment Garga "ist nun in der gewünschten Kampfstimmung" (73), but this is just the opening blow in what will be a long battle—Garga has a lot to learn and to give up before he is truly ready for battle with Shlink. It is only by destabilizing and eventually annihilating Garga's idealism that Shlink will be able to pull him into the battle

71 because it is this idealism which has kept a glimmer of hope for Garga up to this point in time. Once "Tahiti" is obliterated from Garga's mind, he will be forced to accept his role in the battle between him and Shlink.

Garga has been enticed into this battle with the hope of achieving

"Tahiti" and abadoning the burdensome obligations of family life which keep him from fulfilling his dream. The lure of freedom, as illusory as it may be, is enough to catch Garga in the trap laid for him by Shlink's careful research and planning. When Garga shows up at Shlink's office in the second scene, he admits that Shlink's siren call to battle has been irresistible (even if he has resisted it for two weeks according to the dates given in the 1927 version):

"Man hat mich harpuniert. Man zog mich an sich. Es scheint Stricke zu geben.

Ich werde mich an Sie halten, Herr"i^BFA 1, 447). Here, Garga uses the language of bondage and slavery, in which he admits the irresistible dominance {Herrschafti of Shlink. Garga accepts the battle, even if he does not fully know the reasons behind it, although he seems to be conscious of an attraction that Shlink feels for him:

Garga Sie haben Prarie gemacht. Ich akzeptiere die Prarie. Sie haben mir die Haut abgezogen aus Liebhaberei. Durch eine neue Haut ersetzen Sie nichts. Ich werde mit Ihnen reinen Tisch machen. Den Revolver in der Hand: um Auge, Zahn um Zahn. Sh link Sie nehmen den Kampf auf? Garga Ja! Natiiriich unverbindlich. Shlink Und ohne nach einem Grund zu fragen?

72 Garga Ohne nach einem Grundzu fragen. Ich mag nicht wissen, wozu Sie einen Kampf notig haben. Sicher ist der Grund faul. Für mich genügt es, daB Sie sich fur den besseren Mann halten. {^BFA 1,448).

This scene becomes clearer when the Rimbaudian discourse of male

sadomasochism is taken into account. Garga is in effect acceding to Shlink as

the dominant master who will lead Garga through this fight. Through this act

of submission, Garga has given up his claims on isolated individuality and has

entered into a relationship with Shlink. Now that Shlink has compelled Garga

to submit, he turns the tables;

Von heute ab. Mister Garga, lege ich mein Geschick in Ihre Hande, Sie sind mir unbekannt Von heute ab bin ich Ihre Kreatur. Jeder Blick Ihrer Augen wird mich beunruhigen. Jeder Ihrer Wünsche, auch die unbekannten, wird mich willfahrig finden. Ihre Sorge ist meine Sorge, meine Kraft wird die Ihre sein. Meine Gefuhle werden nur Ihnen gewidmet, und Sie werden bose sein.{^BFA 1 ,4 4 8 )

Shlink has pledged more to Garga than just his material possessions—he has pledged his love and obedience. Indeed, Shlink's words have the tone almost of a wedding vow, in which one partner pledges everything to the other. Both have thus agreed to lay aside their former existences and join together in this fight which will, they hope, establish a new sense of vitality and purpose in their lives.

As Brecht later wrote in theProgrammheft zur Heidelberger

Aufführung, this fight centers around "gewisse Vorstellungskomplexe" which

"ein junger Mann von der Art des George Garga von der Familie, von der Ehe

73 Oder von seiner Ehre hat. Diese Vorstellungskomplexe benutzt sein Gegner, um ihn zu schadigen" {^BFA 24, 28). Shlink knows that in order to make Garga an equal competitor he has to force Garga into exploitation, one of the primary characteristics of capitalist competition. The first locus of exploitation is thefamily. Garga's family has to become "pawns in the odd couple's all- absorbing master/slave game," as Elizabeth Wright expressed it (105). But this initial phase of the fight will eventually give way to the ideal direct strugglebetween men without the mediating exploitation of women. But first,

Garga makes the perfect candidate for this education in exploitation because he himself feels exploited by his family's dire economic situation since arriving in the city and has certain resentments against the family for keeping him in a low-paying job and away from his "Tahiti." The traditional locus of homosocial battle has to be removed by Shlink so that he and Garga can engage in a purer type of battle, warfare for its own sake. Garga gambles aw ay himself and his family for the sake of his honor, an honor which his sisterMarie believes is blinding Garga from the harsh reality of what is happening:

Marie Du aber gehst mit mir heim, George. Es ist nur ein Spa8, aber du verstehst es nicht. Garga Wir sind im flachen Land aufgewachsen. Ma. Wir sind hier auf der Auktion. Marie Wir? Was wollen sie von uns? Garga Ich sage dir, es geht nicht um dich. Sie wollen dich nur in den Handel hineinziehen. [...] Ich bin allein in der Prarie und kann nichts für dich tun. {BFA 1, 450)

74 With these words, Garga declares his isolation and severs his familial connection to l^arie, recognizing that she Is "in alle Ewigkeit ein Objekt [...] unter Mannern"{^BFA 1,471). and putting her on the auction block.

After Garga gives Marie over to Shlink, Marie tacitly. If unwillingly, accepts her role as exchange object in the capitalist stage of the relationship between her brother and Shlink marked by the creation of a homosocial triad.

At the conclusion of the fifth scene C'Gleiches Hotel"), Shlink and Garga symbolize their perfect homosocial union by drinking a toast to Shlink's new love:

Garga [...] Wenn Sie getrunken haben, werden Sie lieben. Sh u n k trinkt in der A rt einer Zeremonie:'44^nx\ ich getrunken habe, werde ich lieben. Garga schreitim Schiafmum: Willst du ein Glas trinken. Ma? Nicht? Warum nimmst du keinen Stuhl?{BFA 1, 469)

Marie (here called "Ma") refuses to partake of this ceremonial toast because she realizes that she has been the object of a deal between her brother and

Shlink. She cries, "Hilfe! Sie verkaufen mich!" but her plea will go unanswered—her fate is now sealed by Garga's and Shlink's toast. Marie's love for Shlink, originally based on her love for her brother, has turned against her and made her a prostituted object in this existential battle between the two competitors. Her love has become "eine bittere Frucht" in

75 her realization that Shlink will sacrifice her: "Sie opfem mich au f'{BFA 1,

472-473). Despite all of this, Marie's "love" for Shlink (and indeed her

brother) abides:

Ich liebe Sie. Vergessen Sie nie, daB ich Sie liebe. Ich liebe wie eine wahnsinnige Hiindin. Sie sagen es. Aber nun bezahlen Sie mich. Ja, ich habe Lust, bezahit zu werden. Geben Sie mir Ihre Scheine, ich will leben davon. Ich bin eine Kokotte.{BFA 1, 474)

Marie has learned the price of her love and her role as commodity of

exchange, hence she demands compensation for her services.

Eventually, Shlink removes the burden of Garga's responsibilities (his

job, his parents, his sister) and offers him every opportunity to follow his

dream of "Tahiti". But as Garga gets more and more involved in this

relationship with Shlink, his naivete disappears and he becomes more and

more realistic, perhaps even cynical:

Shlink Sie gewinnen nichts als die Freiheit. Sie schaufen auf. Das Eiland bleibt hinter Ihnen mit seinen Tieren und ihrer Kratze. Frische Winde nehmen Sie auf. Die Eiterbeule lauft in die Rupfen aus. Ihr Billett nach Tahiti ist gesichert. Garga Sie wissen, daB Tahiti ein nackter Stein ist, der das Maul offnet, und daB ich es weiB.{BFA 1, 375-376)

Garga has moved "from the idealistic cry of freedom in Rimbaud's words and

the illusion of primitive freedom contained in the image of Tahiti to the

knowledge that freedom is unattainable" (Lyons 37). Shlink's goal of dragging

an unwilling Garga into the cold reality of urban existence has been achieved.

Garga feels as if he has made a pact, indeed married the devil himself—

76 Shlink's every word and action have become an obsession for Garga. Garga

quotes Rimbaud again, but this time '[l]a citation ne fonctionne pas plus ici

comme indice de l'exotisme et de la liberté; elle est une narration distancée

de l'histoire de Garga, sorte de compte rendu qu'il se fait à lui-même"

(Silhouette 315):

"Ich nenne ihn meinen hollischen Gemahl in meinen Traumen, Shlink, den Hund. Wir sind von Tisch und Bett geschieden, er hat keine Kammer mehr. Sein Brautchen raucht Virginias und verdient sich was in die Strümpfe." Das bin ich!{BFA 1, 464, quotation marks in original)

Garga has indeed prostituted himself for the sake of his beloved "Tahiti," but in the process of this prostitution, he has ceased to believe in the utopia behind it. It appears that Shlink has achieved the human contact, the "love," which he so desired and Garga has acquired the freedom from familial and economic necessities requisite for true freedom:

Shlink Lachen Sie, ich liebe Ihr Lachen. Ih r Lachen ist meinen Sonne, es war armselig hier. Es war ein Kummer, Sie nicht zu sehen. Es sind drei Wochen, Garga. Garga Ich bin zufrieden gewesen, allés in allem. Sh u n k Ja, Sie leben wie in Milch.(Æ^ 1, 466-67)

But appearances of fulfillment are ephemeral and the rich vitality gained by the two protagonists is short-lived:

Garga Nur mein Rücken wird vom Liegen dünn wie eine Grate. Sh u n k Wie armselig es ist zu leben. Man lebt in der Milch, und die Milch ist zu schlecht.{BFA 1, 467)

77 Both have declared their love for one another, but the harmony of this homosexual union begins to take on the predictability o f heterosexual marriage. The fulfillment that the two men were seeking is only to be found

In a continued fight, not in a harmonious love pairing.

In order to restore the missing vitality in their relationship, Garga takes the lead and renews the battle with Shlink upon his release from prison.

Shlink, however, is caught by surprise, having been lulled into a sense of complacency. Garga wants to avoid the temptation and lures of a one-on-one encounter with Shlink, so he decides to invoke the racial hatred of the city dwellers and send the lynchers after his former lover. Garga's entanglement with Shlink is so intense that he felt it necessary to call the entire city of

Chicago in to help him stop the fight: "Dieser Kampf war eine solche

Ausschweifung, daB ich heute ganz Chicago dazu brauche, ihn nicht fortsetzen zu müssen" (Æ64 1, 488). But Garga recognizes that Shlink represents for him a threat to his survival. He has to make it "ihm einfach unmoglich, mich zu sehen" and he will accomplish this "mit einem ganz groben Mittel" (S/ÿ4 1, 488). This relationship with Shlink has become an obsession with Garga and the only way to escape is to destroy its object.

Garga believes that the destruction of his enemy will allow him to resume the

78 life he left behind before the battle—it is as if he were trying to expel an

unwanted virus from his system. But, of course, this experience has left him

altered for ever, just as his sister Marie argued earlier:

Wieder in der Friihe werde ich heiBen, schwarzen Kaffee trinken, mein Gesicht mit kaltem Wasser waschen, die frischen Kleider anziehen, das Hemd zuvorderst. Viele Oinge werde ich aus meinem Him kammen am Morgen, viel wird ringsum vorgehen mit frischem Larm in der Stadt, da ich diese Leidenschaft nicht mehr in mir habe, die mit mir hinunterfahren wollte, aber ich habe noch viele Dinge zu tun.{BFA 1, 488-489)

But Garga will not escape this battle unscarred and will not be able to resume

his pre-Shlink existence.

In the penultimate scene of the play, Shlink approaches Garga as he

tries to escape the lynch mob Garga has set against him. Garga, is initially

unwilling to go with Shlink, but Shlink makes it clear to him that for the battle to end properly, Garga must come with him: "Sie wissen, daB Sie mitkommen

müssen. Wir sind noch nicht fertig"{BFA 1 ,4 8 9 ). Garga cannot end the battle without its first coming to a close. At the end of the play, the goal which remains elusive, "ist nicht Freundschaft, nicht Liebe, sondem Feindschaft"

(Bahr 77). Unlike the end of the battle before Garga goes to prison, this battle does not end in a declaration of homoerotic love. Instead, Shlink and

Garga recognize each other as fellow fighters, as Shlink says:

79 Du hast begriffen, da6 wir Kameraden sind, Kameraden einer metaphysischen Aktion! Unsere Bekanntschaft war kurz, sie war eine Zeitlang vorwiegend, die Zeit ist schnell verflogen. Die Etappen des Lebens sind nicht die der Erinnerung. Der SchluB ist nicht der Ziel, die letzte Episode nicht wichbger als irgendeine andere.{^BFA 1, 490)

For Shlink, the men have now achieved a state of the perfect

C'metaphyiscal") fight free of social and affective complications.

Shlink is then able to accept his death, like Baal, because he has achieved his goal of eliminating his material possessions and giving his all to the fight for life. Thus, Shlink is able to say "Allein sein ist eine gute Sache.

Das Chaos ist aufgebraucht. Es war die beste Zeit"{^BFA 1, 497). Garga, on the other hand, has finally renounced the utopian values he had once found in "Tahiti" and Rimbaud's words: "Was für DummheitenI Worte, auf einem

Planeten, der nicht in der Mitte ist! Wenn Sie langst Kalk über sich haben, durch die natürliche Ausscheidung des Veralteten, werde ich wahlen, was mich unterhalt" {^BFA 1,4 93 ). Garga has become cynical, knowing that he has won the fight against Shlink using unfair methods. Garga is unmoved by

Shlink's final words and wants to savor the victory that he believes is his: "Es ist ganz klar, Shlink: der jüngere Mann gewinnt die Prarie"{BFA 1, 492). In the end, then, Garga declares victory, even if a hollow one, because, in his view, this battle has been one for survival and not one to demonstrate who the stronger opponent was: "Es ist nicht wichtig, der Starkere zu sein, sondern der Lebendige"{BFA 1, 493). Garga's words make his victory seem

80 to be a generational victory, but Indeed Garga has won against the older generation by adopting Its harsh cynicism. Indeed, Garga is unable (and perhaps unwilling) to resume the life that he led previously. At the end of the play, he takes on the ways and values of the now-dead Shlink:. The battle thus seems to have been a necessary stage for Garga's initiation into the ways of the city, as he moved from a naive family man clinging on to outdated social norms and utopian dreams to a man ready to take on the world alone with the "Harthautigkeit" of a businessman like his former rival

Shlink.

81 CHAPTER 3

LOSING ONE'S SELF: MANN 1ST MANN

At the center of Brecht'sMann ist Mann lies the question of human identity and a possibility of a new humanity in the face of a changing world where no values are absolute and everything is relative. This, of course, was not a new reality in the early twentieth century so much as an intellectual recognition of the underlying chaotic nature of life itself. Brecht finds himself unable to identify with the conception of the individual as an autonomous being who can be cultivated or act as a tragic hero who will sacrifice everything for his principles. Although the protagonist Galy Gay may initially appear to be a simple loser, "der nicht trinkt, ganz wenig raucht und fast keine Leidenschaften hat"(BFA 2, 95), he eventually displays a passion for living that reflects the vitalism of Brecht's earlier character Baal. But unlike

Baal who is content to live on the fringes of society and ends his life in a rage of self-consumption and unlike George Garga who fights to the bitter end for his survival, Galy Gay's independence is continually compromised by the social circumstances in which he finds himself. Galy shows the possibility of

82 human change; Brecht's earlier characters such as Baal, Schlink and Garga acted out of "the irrational energy of human instinct" (Lyons 46). As Klaus-

Detlef Müller states, "Die Vitalitat Galy Gays steht im MiBverhaltnis zu seinen

Lebensumstanden" (Joost et al. 118). Galy Gay's simple existence, like that of

Garga, is turned upside down by the introduction of an unforeseen variable, in this case the determination of three soldiers to complete their military unit of four. Nonetheless, Galy's determination to survive persists. Through a series of deceptions, Galy is compelled to deny his former existence and assume the identity of the fourth soldier, Jeriah Jip. This uncertainty and relativity of existence pervades this piece, as we shall see in the parallel transformations of Begbick, Fairchild and Jip himself. Brecht argues that all identities are rooted in a person's function within society and can be changed, often indiscriminately, to fit the particular circumstances. How Brecht evaluated these transformations changed over time and is reflected in the different versions of the play.^

' The material was first worked on in 1918, entitledGatgei, with three scenes from 1921 remaining extant. The second phase of work started in Autumn 1924 after Brecht had read Rudyard Kipling's Barrack Room Ballads{1S92) translated into German in 1911) and Soldiers 777/ee(1888, translated into German in 1900). This resulted in a change of scene to India. By 1926, various scenes which had been written in the previous years were brought together into a coherent piece, which was first performed in September 1926 in Darmstadt and Düsseldorf. This version, here called the 1926 version, was published by Propylaen-Verlag the following year. The piece was revised again in 1927 for a radio performance (not extant) and in 1931 for a performance in Berlin (starring Peter Lorre). This version was first published in the 1938 Gesammelte Werke. A significant difference in Brecht's attitude can be noted in the 1926 and the 1938 versions of the play. Historical circumstances, undoubtedly, played a role in Brecht's changes in the text.

83 At no point, however, does Brecht mourn the loss of a traditional

Identity. Brecht remained firmly committed to the collective as a new

organizing principle for society In the years after writing this piece. Reflecting

In 1954 on his early works, Brecht finds that his earlier praise of the collective

problematic. In light of the rise of National Socialism two decades earlier: The

collective inMann ist Mann, Brecht wrote,

1st das falsche, schlechte Kollektiv (der "Bande ") und seine Verfuhrungskraft, jenes Kollektiv, das In diesen Jahren Hitler und seine Geldgeber rekrutlerten, das unbestlmmte Verlangen der Kleinbürger nach dem geschlchtllch relfen, echten sozialen Kollektiv der Arbeiter ausbeutend{BFA 23, 245).

In 1936, Brecht wrote of using this piece In the battle against fascism:

Die Parabel M ann is t M an n kann ohne groBe Mühe konkrebslert werden. Die Verwandlung des Kleinbürgers Galy Gay In eine menschllche Kampfmaschlne' kann statt In Indien In Deutschland splelen. Die Sammlung der Armee zu Kllkoa kann In den Parteltag zu Nürnberg verwandelt werden.{BFA 2, 410)

And yet Brecht had not conceived of this negative turn when he first wrote this piece. The dissolution of traditional (i.e. nineteenth-century) Ideals of

Individuality had left a vacuum which called for a new vision of human society and the Individual's place In It. As Brecht pointed out In his commentary on the 1927 radio performance, Mann ist Mann can be seen as

die Auselnandersetzung der Masse mit dem Indlvlduum. Denn schon zeigt das Indlvlduum Galy Gay elgentumllche Zwelfel an seiner Identitat Oder deren Feststellbarkelt und 1st so ein Schaublld dafur, wie In unserer Zeit fortschreltend der oberflachllche FImIs des Indlvlduallsmus sich zersetzt{BFA 24, 37).

84 The fluid relativity of modem existence demands a new concept of the individual, one which is not fixed and one which is based on that individual's role within the whole. Brecht wanted to portray the "permanent changeability in place of unity and consistency of characters" (Sokel, "Brecht's Concept"

177).The superficial primacy of the individual has given way to a more accurate and dynamic view of human existence. Thus, "die zukunftsweisende

Seite" of this piece, according to Jan Knopf, is "die aus dem Verlust resultierende, notwendige Neuorientierung des Individuums im Kollektiv"

(48).

In terms of form, this piece also reflects the changing nature of the individual. No longer do the actors stay in character throughout the piece— they often step out of role and add commentary to the situation which has just been depicted on stage. This is more evident especially in the later versions of the piece, for example, where the "Mann-ist-Mann Song" from the

1926 version is replaced with Begbick's commentaries on Galy Gay's transformations. Herbert Jhering'sBerliner Borse-Courier review of Brecht’s

1931 production (with Peter Lorre as Galy Gay)^ describes this ultimately as a failed experiment:

^ This production was the basis of the 1938 version of the play as found in theGesammelte Werke.

85 [Brecht] wollte, Indem er den Umbau des Packers Galy Gay von einem harmiosen Indlvlduum In einen Soldaten, In eine Nummer, In einen Kollektivmenschen darstellte, glelchzeltlg den Weg zur Schauspleikunst von eIner charakteiislerden zu eIner typislerenden zelgen. Er ging von der Personllchkelt zur Maske, von der Identlflzlerenden zur berichtenden, von der dynamischen zur statischen Schauspleikunst. Eine Probe, die mlBglückte, die aber ein ungewôhniich relches DIskussIonsmaterial enthalt [ellipses In BFA] (quoted In BFA 2,419).

Despite Jhering's negative evaluation of the 1931 production, Brecht was to

go on and develop this "epic theater" In his later pieces.

Brecht, who called this play "das erste kollektivlstlsche Lustsplel elner

Zeit, deren Haupteiiebnis der Triumph und Zerfall des Indlvlduallsmus und

der Auf^eg des Marxismus 1st"{^BFA 24,42), later rejected this mostly

positive evaluation of Galy Gay's transformation after witnessing the National

Socialists' rising power. Brecht's ambivalence resulted In his decision to omit the final two scenes In his 1931 Berlin production^. Brecht, who had begun to embrace the Marxist Ideal of the collective, felt compelled In 1931 "das Stuck nach dem groSen Montageakt enden [zu] lassen, da Ich keine Mogllchkelt sah, dem Wachstum des Helden Im Kollektiv einen negatlven Charakter zu verlelhen. So hatte Ich lieber auf die Beschrelbung des Wachstums verzlchtet"

{BFA 23, 245). The truncated ending of 1931, continued In the 1938 printed version, has a significant Impact on the text, as will be discussed later.

^ These scenes are also missing in the 1938 versionBFA. in 86 In the course of this play, Galy Gay, an "elnfacher Packer vom Hafen"

{^BFA 2,101) with "ein welches Gemüt"i^BFA 2,95), exchanges his identity, or

more precisely his name and social function (for that is all that is left of

identity), for that of Jeraiah Jip, a British soldier in India. Galy Gay is lured

into this exchange through the machinations of Jip's three comrades who desperately need a fourth man to complete their functional unit. The exploitative nature of this exchange is highlighted because the "Medium der

Verwandlung sind die okonomischen Verkehrsformen der Gesellschaft"

(Müller, "Afe/7/7 is tM a n rI' 96). As Uria says (in the 1938 version of the text):

Kameraden, der Krieg 1st ausgebrochen. Die Zeit der Unordnung 1st vorüber. Auf private Wünsche kann also keine Rücksicht mehr genommen werden. Deshalb muB der Packer Galy Gay aus Kilkoa jetzt im Laufschritt in den Soldaten Jeraiah Jip verwandelt werden. Zu diesem Zweck wollen wir ihn in ein Geschaft verwickeln, wie es in unserer Zeit Qblich {BFA1st... 2,204).

The need for the collective to coalesce and to ignore private wishes remains a theme in Brecht's later work, especially in theLehrstOcke. At the end ofD a s

Badener Lehrstück{1929), the chorus calls upon the mechanics

mit uns zu marschieren und mit uns Zu verandem nicht nur Ein Gesetz der Erde, sondem das Grundgesetz Einverstanden, daB allés verandert wird Die Welt und die Menschheit Vor allem die Unordnung Der Menschenklassen, weil es zweierlei Menschen gibt Ausbeutung und Unkenntnis.{BFA 3,45)

87 In Das Badener LehrsWck, the mechanics are called to overcome the

"Unordnung" of both classes o f human beings: the exploiters and the

unwitting who are exploited. These same two classes are presentM ann in is t

M ann. Here, however, the unwitting Galy Gay is brought not into a collective

which will work against exploitation; instead he is "wie ein Auto ummontiert"

{BFA 2,123) and then reassembled to become the leader of the forces of

colonial exploitation.

As stated above, Galy Gay's assumption into the collective of the

military unit could no longer be acceptable to Brecht after his first-hand

experience of National Socialist militarism. Based on his reading o f Kipling's

Barrack Room Ballads, Brecht had loaded his own text with multiple layers of

reference to the exploitation inherent to the colonial system in order to locate

the action of Mann 1st Mann "in den abenteueriich-exoti'schen Bereich eines

Kolonial-Indiens" (Müller,'^Mann IstM and' 91). As Janelle Reinelt indicates,

"[c]easing to be a private person and becoming a member of the mass has

positive connotations vis-à-vis the effort to build a revolutionary party, but its

fascist connotations are much stronger, especially within Brecht's historical

context^' (102). The dissolution of Galy Gay's individuality, such as it may

have been, must be seen within the ideological structures of late British colonialism and capitalism. In this text, as Daniel Frey points out, we witness

88 "non seulement la réalité du processus de démontage et de réification du

travailleur en société capitaliste mais aussi le futur démontage physique

et politique de l'individu sous le fascisme" (124).

Imperialism permeates this piece. There is the obvious historical

circumstance which provides the background of the piece in colonial,

Kiplingesque India. Brecht's choice of this rather exotic milieu allows for that

necessary diqunction between the audience's experience and the action of

the play, a central technique of the epic theater. Secondly, there is a more

insidious kind of imperialism present in the way that the military coopts its conscripts into its system of functional coherence by forcing them to sacrifice any shred of autonomy that they may have still possessed. From the

beginning, it is clear that the soldiers who attempt to coopt Galy have been reduced to functional, machine-like units within a system. They even compare themselves to tanks: "Gleich wie die gewaltigen Tanks unserer Queen mit

Petroleum aufgefullt werden müssen, [...] so 1st den Soldaten Whiskytrinken unerlaBlich" {^BFA 2,96). These soldiers are not unlike Galy Gay. They, too, were presumably simple, unassuming men who had the misfortune of being drafted into the British Indian army. Any cunning or deceit that they bring to play are a result of their overriding personal goal of survival. The sacrifice of all else for the sake of biological survival was seen earlier in the character of

George Garga in D ic k ic h t The army, with its interlocking system of smaller

89 and smaller units of responsibility, has made it impossible for these men to

act as individuals. As is mentioned repeatedly through the text, the smallest

unit of functionality in the army consists of four men. Indeed, Gal/s wife

finds this of particular danger: "Auch sind sie gelahrlich für den einzelnen

Mann, well sie immer zu viert sind"(BFA 2, 95). As Klaus-Detlef Müller

summarizes, "die Identitat [ist] nicht durch die Person, sondem durch die

Zahl bestimmt" Ç^Mann is t M a n rf 94). The army has also reduced these men

to functional parts of a whole by emphasizing that the only identity that

matters is that given on one's identity papers; all other individual characteristics are to be denied. This, presumably, is for unit cohesion, which in the military world is paramount over all other concerns, including one's individuality. Uria knows well that "die Militarpasse dürfen nicht beschadigt werden. Denn ein Mann kann jederzeit ersetzt werden, aber es gibt nichts

Heiliges mehr, wenn es nicht ein PaB {BFAist" 2,97-98). In this world, Ralf

Witzler argues, "Identitat verdankt sich der gelungenen Bestimmung, einer

Interpretation als solchen Etwas. [...] Sie bezieht ihre 'Wahrheit' aus der

Zustimmung zu einer bestimmten Zeit und damit in einer konkreten Situation"

(150). The reduction of identity to functionality is summarized in Galy's self­ eulogy: "Einer ist keiner. Es muB ihn einer anrufen"(BFA 2, 142).

90 The reality of fluid personal identities reflects the general flux of

existence itself. All things in Brecht's world view, at least in this piece, are in a

state of fluid relativity whose chaotic nature is the only thing which can be

relied upon. Names, status and nature itself can no longer be regarded as

static. Fairchild is encouraged by Begbick to forget his "zufalligen Namen"

(BFA 2, 186). And in a comment reminiscent o f Baal's fascination with the

flow of life, she reminds Galy of the only constant in the world—change itself:

Wie oft du auch den FluB ansiehst, der trage Dahinzieht, nie siehst du dasselbe Wasser Nie kehrt es, das hinunterflieBt, kein Tropfen von ihm Zu seinem Ursprung zuriick.(BFA 1 ,1 8 9 )

This modernist preoccupation with the shaky foundation of truth, such as it is,

is reflected throughout the piece. The intermission piece C'Dss

Elefantenkalb"), meant for performance in the theater lobby, is subtitled "Die

Beweisbarkeit jeglicher Behauptung"(BFA 2, 158). But as we saw in D ickicht, opinions and assertions have no absolute value founded on a sure truth; they can be put on the market just like any other product and changed when circumstances require it. Yet this does not obviate the feet that those who hold these opinions are attached to them in often irrational ways. As Martin

Esslin writes, for Brecht "this ambiguity of all things, the idea that nothing is really what it seems, constituted the essence of drama and poetry" (152).

And, indeed, the central act of Galy's transformation occurs in a cabaret-like grotesque centering around the sale of a fake elephant (Schechter 68).

91 The central "Montageakt" (scene 9) in which Galy Gay is finally transformed into a soldier has a farcical quality emphasized by the division into "Nummem" like a variété show and, in the 1926 version, the inclusion of the "Mann-ist-Mann-Song". As James Lyon points out, this strips Galy's loss of his identity of any sense of tragedy and makes it into the "Lustspiel" Brecht designated in the subtitle of the playO'Mann ist M anri' 516). In the previous scene, Galy Gay is initially unwilling to participate in the soldiers' trap when they try to lure him with the advantages of military life. The opportunity to travel and the honor for one's family fail to impress Galy sufficiently to convince him to participate. Even when Polly mentions the easy availability of women, "Die Damen erwarten von uns Soldaten sehr viel, aber niemals Geld"

(BFA 2, 118), Galy politely dismisses the suggestion. Only when the soldiers offer him a deal, "ein Geschaft"(BFA 2,119), does Galy become interested.

He is "fur beinahe jedes Geschaft der richti'ge Mann"(BFA 2, 120) because of his desperate economic situation. Galy Gay is lured into the trap by his own enthusiasm for the chance to profit in the very system which oppresses him.

"Er hat nichts zu verlieren, aber er wird in seiner kleinburgeriichen Mentalitat von der Hoffnung bestimmt, daB er etwas gewinnen konnte" (Muller, "A/a/?/? is t M a n ri' 95). The soldiers arrange a deception in which Galy Gay will sell

Begbick a fake elephant, played by Jesse and Polly. They then plan to bring him up on charges of selling military property in order to force him to

92 renounce finally his claim to his Galy Gay identity: "Denn wenn dieser Galy

Gay sein Geschaft mit einem Elefanten gemacht hat, und das Geschaft ist faul, dann will er noch lieber Jeraiah Jip sein als Galy Gay, der Verbrecher"

{^BFA 2,124). The fact that the elephant is fake is irrelevant; the fake elephant is an elephant because of its exchange function in the financial transaction.

Galy "wird Ihn doch für einen Elefanten halten. Nur well ein Kaufer da ist!"

{BFA 2,125).

Galy Gay does not participate In the deal until an economic transaction is established. He is not interested in a direct relationship with the women proffered to him by Polly as an enticement to enlist. Instead, he is interested in developing a homosocial relationship with the men, because he sees that as a basis for power and advancement in society. Indeed, as soon as Galy agrees to participate, his wife appears and he denies his relationship with her, instead choosing to put his fate in the hands of the soldiers. Galy apparently thinks he is being clever in doing so and that he will benefit significantly from this arrangement. As he comments, "Man sagt den Galy Gays in ganz Irland nach, dal3 sie überall einen Nagel einzuschlagen wissen"(BFA 2, 122).

Previous research on this piece has emphasized the collective nature of Galy

Gay's new military unit, in either negative or positive terms (or sometimes both), but no critic to my knowledge has explored the significance of the homosocial nature of the military and the manner in which gender relations

93 are often used to achieve a desired result. In particular, the central role of the

Widow Begbick in the negotiations that eventually lead to Galy Gay's transformation creates a typical situation of triangulation where two men (or groups of men) negotiate their own relationship through the use of a third

party of the opposite sex. Begbick, unlike in her appearance in Brecht's later

Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, may seem largely a pawn in the soldiers' manipulative games, but in some ways she is the one character in this piece who has learned to use the system to her advantage.

Begbick, like the other characters Min ann is t M ann, has done throughout her life what was necessary to survive in an exploitative world

(Cardullo 93). She has also learned to be a successful manipulator of others in order to achieve her goals—a necessary skill in a world based on exploitation. She is the voice of experience in this play, constantly interrupting the action (especially in scene 9, the "Montageakt") and giving the audience the impetus "to draw the necessary conclusions from its actions before moving on" (Cardullo 93). Indeed, as Ralph Ley writes, she may represent the principle of a Baalian life, a life lived to its fullest (260). In her first scene C'Landstrasse zwischen Kilkoa und dem Kamp", scene 3 ), she has convinced Galy Gay to carry her shopping basket for her. Galy Gay is simplistically obsessed with getting the fish he set out to buy at the beginning, but Begbick's intentions eventually become clear. She tries to

94 flatter him with comments on his strength and honor, but finally she tries to offer him a pleasure much greater than that of a fish: "vielleicht ware die

Dame in der Lage, sich in einer Form erkenntlich zu zeigen, die den GenuG eines Rschessens aufwiegt"(BFA 2,101). Galy Gay, as described earlier when discussing scene 8, shows little sexual interest in women and admits:

"Offen gestanden: Ich mochte gem einen Fisch kaufen gehen"(BFA 2, 101).

Finally, Begbick, who is becoming increasingly frustrated, offers to sell Galy

Gay one of her cucumbers. If Galy isn't interested in pursuing her sexually, perhaps the purchase of one of her cucumt)ers, which seem clearly to be a phallic symbol, would entice him. Begbick recognizes the value o f a financial transaction for Galy and hopes to capture his attention in this manner, but

Galy is not intrinsically interested in a transaction with Begbick or any other woman. As seen later in the piece, Galy only willingly participates in deals when they are between men. Women are of no interest to Galy until they are associated with a homosocial transaction. Only after Begbick protests loudly and shames Galy into acquiescence does he accept her offer and buy the cucumber from her. Galy, "der nicht nein sagen kann"(BFA 2 ,1 0 2 ), does not have a strong enough will to say no for any extended period of time, which of course makes him the ideal candidate for the soldiers' transformation scheme.

95 Begbick is also central in the conflict which faces Fairchild, a sergeant

in the British army who is nicknamed "Blody Rve"^. Fairchild gained this

nickname because of his prowess on the field in which he killed five helpless

natives at once (BFA 2, 219). Fairchild's story, which Marianne Kesting has called a parodistic sideplot (192), has instead an essential significance for the reading of this piece. His fate parallels that of Galy Gay, but in reverse, and shows the power that comes with military honor, that is belonging to the homosocial collective, and the scorn that comes when one is separated from the group. Just as Galy Gay will discover, being in the army gives a "nobody" an identity which he can use to further his tight for survival and gain control over others; Fairchild has become "der gefahriichste Mann der indischen

Armee"(BFA 2 ,1 0 7 ). Fairchild is described in terms which lessen his humanity and emphasize his uncontrollable and unnatural power. He is called

"der menschliche Taifun" and he possesses "einen unnatürlichen

Geruchssinn, er riecht Verbrechen"(BFA 2 ,1 0 5 ). But Fairchild's power and authority are only as deep as his uniform. Fairchild does not have a violent nature per se, because as with every other character in this piece, he possesses no essential core of humanity which remains immutable in the face of change. Indeed, it only has to rain for Fairchild's personality to change.

Thus spelled in Brecht's idiosyncratic spelling of English in the 1926 version. In the 1938 version, the nickname has been Germanized to "der Blutige Fünfer". 96 The choice of the rain as the impetus for Fairchild's descent into

weakness is meant by Brecht to be an ironic display of just how fragile

character can really be. Fairchild, who commands honor and fear from the

soldiers under him, is unable to control his "nature" when nature itself lets

loose. As Begbick describes it, "Wenn es einmal regnet, ist der Blutige Fünfer,

der gefahriichste Mann der britischen Armee, ungefahrlich wie ein Milchzahn.

Wenn er einen seiner Anfalle von Sinnlichkeit hat, ist er blind fur allés, was

um ihn vorgeht" (BFA 2, 184). That he "auSeriich und inneriich verandert"

upon the slightest stimulus(BFA 2,107) demonstrates the fragile,

circumstantial nature of human identity. For Fairchild, the uniform provides

"Schütz, Versteck aus mangelnder Personlichkeit, Vorgabe von Charakter,

über den er gar nicht verfügt" (Knopf 50). But the uniform symbolizes more

than that for Fairchild; it is equivalent to his history and the reputation behind

the name "Blody Five." In scene 9, when Fairchild is reduced to Begbick's

sexual toy, he laments:

Was für eine Schande ist über mich gekommen? Was wird aus meinem Namen, der groS war von Kalkutta bis Cooch Behar? Wo ist das Gestem, das vergangen ist? Sogar mein Rock ist hin, den ich getragen habe. Auf meinem Kopf sitzt ein zivilistischer Hut und in der ganzen Armee wird man sagen, daB ich nicht mehr der Blutige Fünfer bin.(BFA 2, 218)

In reality, Fairchild's identity, like Galy Gay's, can be changed as simply as putting on or taking off a uniform—if a person is unable to fulfill the function which gives him that identity, then that identity is lost. Fairchild's connection

97 to the uniform also provides him with am asculine identity, as a man of great

prowess and achievement. Like many military men, Fairchild "finds his

identity, his manliness, in his military rôle" (Lyons 63) which "rekurriert auf

altes Heldentum, auf den soldatischen Helden, dessen Bewahrung in

Uniform" (Knopf 50). But this heroic construct of masculinity is threatened by

the onslaught of instinctual sexual drives.

Jan Knopf also states that "[a]n Individualitat besitzt er einzig seine

Sexualitat" (50). Fairchild's sexuality, however, is not so really much his own as it is an instinctual drive rearing its ugly head and destroying the carefully groomed appearance {S ch ein )of an identity. Begbick, in her speech in the

1938 version, acts as a siren-seductress calling Fairchild to celebrate his instinctual, animal-like humanity:

Folge doch, Blutiger Fünfer, deiner groGen Natur Ungesehn! Denn wer erfêhrt es? Und in der Hohle meiner Achsel, meinem Haar Erfehre, wer du bist. Und in der Beuge meiner Knie vergiB Deinen zufalligen Namen. Kümmerliche ZuchtI Armliche Ordnung! So bitt ich dich jetzt, Blutiger Fünfer, komm zu mir in dieser Nacht des lauen Regens Genau, wie du befurchtest: als Mensch! Als Widerspruch. Als MuB-und-will-doch-nicht. Jetzt komm als Mensch! So wie Natur dich schuf Ganz ohne Eisenhut! Verwirrt und wild und in dich selbst verwickelt Und unbewehrt gegen deinen Trieben Und hilflos deiner eigenen Starke horig. So komm: als Mensch! (BFA 2, 186)

98 Here Begbick Is like a feminine Baal, luring her sexual object away from the

conventions which bind him into a celebration of unbridled human passion—a

humanity without the human restrictions of social convention. However, one

significant difference must be noted—Begbick is luring Fairchild into this

sexual trap as a result of prior arrangement with the soldiers to distract him

from his investigation of their crime(BFA 2, 186).

Fairchild, who has all the appearance of a good military man, lacks the

ability to control his instincts for the good o f the uniform and the whole of the

army. Fairchild sees his carefully constructed identity destroyed by the

onslaught of instinctual, sexual urges. When this identity is consumed, he

becomes weak and passive and is unable to carry out his leadership role in

the military (Lyons 63). The master shooter even loses his ability to shoot an egg from four steps away(BFA 2, 138). Indeed, when he sheds the uniform,

"1st der furchterregende Unmensch Fairchild fur die Soldaten eine Unperson,

mit der sie ihren Spott treiben konnen" (Müller,''M a n n is t M a n rf 98). Fairchild

has become the devote servant of Begbick, because she offers him the only

(elusive) chance of satisfying his sexual drives and escaping the fate brought on by his sexuality:

B egbick Sind Sie denn ein Unmensch? Fa ir c h ild Es würde mir sehr leid tun, wenn Sie es so auffaBten. Ihre Meinung ist mir sehr wichtig. B egbick Aber ist sie auch ausschlaggebend? Fa ir c h ild biickt ih r tie f in die Augen Maso\\A.. (BFA 2, 219)

99 Not only has Fairchild come under Begbick's sexual control; she has also

gained control of his entire being. Fairchild's inability to control his sexual

Instincts and subservience to a woman makes him not only "ein Unmensch",

but also demasculinizes him into "einfach eine Sau" in the eyes of his soldiers

(BFA 2 , 219). Initially, Fairchild wants Begbick to stop tempting him sexually,

but Begbick denies any responsibility for his sexual urges: "Wenn du willst, tue es!" and "Dann tue es nicht, wenn du nicht willst!"(BFA 2, 150). But, eventually, Fairchild finds that his physical masculinity, centered in the penis,

must surely be the cause of his problem:

B lody WeiSt du nicht, da6 mich meine Mannheit schwach macht, wenn du so dasitzt? Leokadja Dann reiBe dir deine Mannheit aus, Junge!(BFA 2, 150)

If Begbick refuses to accept responsibility for his sexual weakness, Fairchild sees no choice but to assert his identity in an act of self-castration (Lyons

65), saying "Ich übemehme die Verantwortung. Ich muB es tun, damit ich

Blody Five bleibe"(BFA 2, 150). Fairchild's identity-construct already had no basis In physical reality; after all, his reputation was built on the shooting of five unarmed natives, which was no great act of heroism. But his reputation was able to grow without any basis and likewise Fairchild regains his masculine stature within the collective of the army, even though he no longer

100 has the organ identifying him as male. But this should come as not surprise,

as gender, like identity itself, is here revealed as a construct based on

functional value, not on physical reality.

The British army serves as the locus of masculine identity and

power in this piece by sustaining itself through systematic exploitation of the

native population. Fairchild is reduced to a feminine nothingness when he no

longer wears the uniform and comes under Begbick's control. The soldiers'

concern for their comrade Jeraiah Jip extends only as far as their own

survival. Indeed, all the soldiers need is a fourth man to fill out their unit and

pass inspection. With Jip's passport in hand, they begin their work on converting Galy Gay to their cause. In the military as in the "real" world, the

physical person is interchangeable; all that matters is the maintenance of order:

U r ia [...] Jetzt muB also dieser Galy Gay aus Kilkoa mit Haut und Haar zu Jeraiah Jip werden, unserem Kameraden.D ie d K i betrachten den schiafenden Gaiy Gay. Po lly Aber wie soil denn das gehen, Uria? Wir haben nichts als Jips PaB. Jesse Das genügt. Das muB einen neuenJip geben. Man macht zuviel Aufhebens mit Leuten. Einer ist keiner. Über weniger als 200 zusammen kann man gar nichts sagen. [...] (BFA 2, 117)

101 The physical person Jeraiah Jip is thus stripped of his identity because he no

longer has the passport which supports his functional role in the army.

Without that function, he effectively ceases to exist. Likewise, Galy Gay

before he meets the three soldiers is essentially a non-entity, with no

significance for the soldiers.

As we have seen before with Fairchild, those outside of the military are

reduced to unpersonhood (Müller, "A/a/7/7 is t M a n ri' 98) and are only noticed

when they have a defined use value for the army men. Since masculinity is

defined by the uniform and the function which goes along with it, those who

do not wear the uniform are devalued as feminine. Begbick, however, has

learned to work this system and gains a certain status because she provides entertainment in the form of liquor (and quite possibly prostitutes). Galy Gay

has "ein weiches Gemut"(BFA 2 ,9 5 ), a trait which can be classified as feminine; he certainly is lacking in the heroic boastfulness of the military, as exemplified by Fairchild.

Galy relishes his position in the beginning, as he gains attention and a sense of value by being of use to others. After the soldiers have completed their initial use of Galy as a stand-in for Jip (scene 4), Galy Gay has a new sense of power and importance; he is now one of the "boys," so to speak:

"Oh, eine kleine Gefalligkeit unter Mannern kann nie schaden"(BFA 2, 109).

Indeed, Galy admits that he too was using the soldiers to achieve a

102 temporary upward mobility: "Sehen Sie, ich trinke jetzt ein Glas Whisky wie

Wasser und sage mir: diesen Herren war damit genützt"(BFA 2, 109). But

Galy's offer of further assistance (which he assumes would come with further

rewards), is rebuffed by the soldiers at this time, who think Galy has t)ecome too self-important: "Es gibt Leute, die ihre Nase in gar alle Angelegenheiten hineinstecken müssen. Wenn man solchen Leuten den kleinen Finger reicht, nehmen sie gleich die ganze Hand"(BFA 2,109). This exchange demonstrates that, for Galy Gay, the association with the soldiers gives him a sense of utilitarian purpose. His previous interaction with Begbick and her shopping basket could not give Galy the same kind of fulfillment. He clearly sees that power and authority emanate from the military and he wants to participate.

Only Galy Gay's attachment to his name stands in the way of full integration into the military. The soldiers cannot be sure that he will not reveal their subterfuge. Galy holds onto his name for much of the play, even though occasionally denying it, because it is the only remnant of his paltry former existence. It was indeed all he owned, but as Jip and Fairchild have discovered, the hold on one's name is tenuous at best. But more significantly,

Galy Gay comes to realize that there is no absolute meaning behind the

103 signifier, that names are just as interchangeable as uniforms. Indeed, in the

1938 version, Galy and the other soldiers sit down to listen to Begbick sing a

song about her experiences:

So hatte ich auch einen Namen Und wer den Namen horte in der Stadt, sagte: das ist ein guter Name. Aber eines Nachts trank ich vier Glaser Korn Und am andem Morgen stand an meiner Tür mit Kreide ein Schlechtes Wort. Da nahm der Milchmann die Milch wieder fort Mein Name war hin [...] Nenne doch nicht so genau deinen Namen. Wozu denn? Wo du doch immerzu einen andem damit nennst. Und wozu so laut deine Meinung, vergiB sie doch Welche war es denn gleich? Erinnere dich doch nicht Eines Dinges langer, als es selber dauert.(BFA 2, 210)

Maintaining a relentless hold on one's identity is foolish. The constant flux of

existence guarantees that the person signified by that name will not be the

same person yesterday or tomorrow, A name will also only serve an individual

as long as others recognize him or her by that name. Fairchild's example

demonstrates the fragile nature of reputation and fame—once a person's

utilitarian value is consumed, their existence is denied by those around him,

no matter how great a reputation he formerly enjoyed.

At this point, it is necessary to differentiate the endings of the two versions ofMann ist Mann. In the 1938 version, Galy Gay is transformed at the moment of his faux execution. Galy chooses to be killed and avoid legal

responsibility for the criminal act of selling army property (the fake elephant).

104 This falls into the soldiers' plan to coerce him into the identity of Jeraiah Jip,

their missing comrade. Galy's choice is between survival in the military unit

(where he can put his life on the line for the good of the male collective) or

death by not cooperating. Thus, in the 1938 version, it is an instinctual

decision to survive, in which Galy allows himself to be degraded "zum

Massenteil, und zwar zum bewuBtiosen, verhetzten, die eigenen

Moglichkeiten und die Menschlichkeit leugnenden Hurdenti'er mit allen

freigesetzten niedrigen Instinkten" (Knopf 47). As Galy admits during the

eulogy given over his own coffin:

Und ich, der eine ich und der andere ich Werden gebraucht und sind also brauchbar. (BFA 2, 224)

Thus the 1938 version ends on a pessimistic note, in which Galy Gay is coerced into submission and his free will plays no role in his fate.

In the 1926 version, on the other hand, Galy Gay's submission is almost an act of triumph, in which "der Gewinn Galy Gays [liegt] nicht eigentlich im Erreichen der Soldatenexistenz, sondem in der veranderten

Einstellung gegenüber der eigenen Identitat" (Witzler 159). Galy Gay witnesses the drastic action taken by Fairchild to retain his reputation and name, but not before trying to stop him: "Halt! Tue nichts wegen deinem

Namen. Ein Name ist etwas Unsicheres: darauf kannst du nicht bauen!"(BFA

2, 150). Witnessing this desperate act for the sake of a name leads Galy Gay to follow a dialectically opposite path:

105 Dieser Herr hat wegen seinem Namen etwas sehr Blutiges mit sich gemacht. Er hat sich eben sein Geschlecht weggeschossen! Das ist ein groBes Gluck für mich, da6 ich das gesehen habe: Jetzt sehe ich, wohin diese Hartnackigkeit fuhrt und wie blutig es ist, wenn ein Mann nie mit sich zufrieden ist und so viel Aufhebens aus seinem Namen macht!{^BFA 2,150)

Galy Gay decides that maintaining his identity is not worth the physical agony

Fairchild undergoes; he now willingly answers to Begbick's question: "Und

jetzt weiBt du doch auch, wer du bist?" with "Jeraiah Jip, mein Name"{BFA

2,151), showing everybody the proof in his identification card. Galy Gay's act

thus arises out of more than just an instinctual drive to survive (although that

plays its role here as well); it is an act of self-affirmation. Galy Gay has been

given the chance to become part of the military establishment, the collective,

and recognizes that power and authority emanate from the group, not from

the individual. By joining the group, he also gained masculine status: "Jetzt

ist er, wenn auch nach einem schmerzlichen ProzeB, ein Mann geworden, der

in den kommenden Schlachten seinen Platz ausfüllen wird"(BFA 2, 220). This

masculine identity attains full stature when Galy Gay leads the charge into the

Sir el Dchowr fortress, now known as "der groBte Mann, den die Armee hat,

Jeraiah Jip, menschliche Kampfmaschine!"{BFA 2,157).

This earlier version reflects Brecht's focus on the positive impact of joining a collective; there is little explicit critique of militarism and imperialism

in this version. This is perhaps best summarized by the position he takes in

the "Zwischenspruch," an interlude spoken by the actress playing Begbick:

106 Herr Bertolt Brecht behauptet: Mann 1st Mann. Und das 1st etwas, was jeder behaupten kann. Aber Herr Bertolt Brecht beweist auch dann DaB man mit einem Menschen beliebig viel machen kann. Hier wird heute Abend ein Mensch wie ein Auto ummontiert Ohne daB er irgend etwas dabei verliert. Dem Mann wird menschlich nahergetreten Er wird mit Nachdruck, ohne VerdruB gebeten Sich dem Laufe der Welt schon anzupassen Und seinen Privatfisch schwimmen zu lassen. Herr Bertolt Brecht hofft, Sie werden den Boden, auf dem Sie stehen Wie einen Schnee unter sich vergehen sehen Und werden schon merken bei dem Packer Galy Gay DaB das Leben auf Erden gefahrlich sei.(BFA 2 , 123)

Brecht sees around him a changing world where nothing remains the same and no one can rightfully believe that there is an absolute beneath this change. Galy's choice to join the collective is a willful act to become part of the mainstream which, in Brecht's view, recognizes the flux in the world. He warned listeners of his 1927 radio speech not to consider Galy Gay "einen

Schwachling," but rather, "er ist der Starkste. Er ist allerdings erst der

Starkste, nachdem er aufgehort hat, eine Privatperson zu sein, er wird erst in der Masse stark"{BFA 24,41). In the 1938 version of this interlude, Brecht interjects the following warning, however,

Und wozu auch immer er umgebaut wird In ihm hat man sich nicht geirrt. Man kann, wenn wir nicht über ihn wachen Ihn uns über Nacht auch zum Schlachter machen. (BFA 2, 203)

107 The fundamental change In the versions Is here demonstrated: Galy Is no longer responsible for his choice. Indeed, Galy's becoming a part of the collective can have negative consequences unforeseen even by those who created him. The collective and Its claim on the Individual will continue to preoccupy Brecht, as we shall seeAufstieg In und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny and the fragmentary Untergang des Egoisten Fatzer.

108 CHAPTER 4

CAUGHT IN THE NET: AUFSUEG UND FALL DER STADT MAHAGONNY

In the 1929 librettoAufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Brecht returns to the dialectic between what he saw as a natural existence outside of the city and the unnatural restrictions and constraints of urban life. As inB aal, this natural existence takes place in the woods, albeit here in Alaska, and is associated with the close bonds men are able to create with one another without having to exchange women as commodities. As in 6^j/and at the fringes of the cityIm Dickicht, the woods here are not a complete wilderness marked with an absence of civilization. They are places of capitalist exploitation a t the fringes of society, where, in all three plays, the woods are being destroyed for the production of lumber and other wood products.

Although Paul Ackermann and his friends, like Baal, Ekart and the woodcutters, share a homosocial comradery from their time working together

In the wilderness of Alaska, it is in the context of a natural existence which they are gradually destroying. Alaska in this piece represents a purer state

109 where men can live and work together In harmony. Unlike Baal and Shlink, the lumberjacks in this play are not trying to escape permanently the constrictions of bourgeois life. Unlike the "Lone Prospector" and his comrades in the Chaplin film The Gold Rush, these men are not freelancers seeking their fortune in the wilderness. TTiey are part of an organized effort to deforest Alaska and supply the growing economy of America. Indeed, their hard labor was motivated by the delayed pleasures they had hoped to find in a city such as Mahagonny, where "Pferd- und Weiberfleisch" and "Whisky und

Pokertisch" are readily available and where there is "keine Direktion"{^BFA 2,

340). This lack of management and ready availability of vices was the prime motivator in the men's hard work in Alaska^; as Paul sings:

Tief in Alaskas weiSverschneiten Waldem Habe ich in Gemeinschaft mit drei Kameraden Baume gefallt und an die Flüsse gebracht Rohes Fleisch gegessen und Geld gesammelt. Sieben Jahre habe ich gebraucht Um hierherzukommen.(^BFA 2, 351-52)

Alaska is for these men, especially Paul, both their origin and the place to which they long to return, in essence functioning in a similar manner to the fiatland and Tahiti of the Gargas in Im Dickicht The other three men adapt to

‘ The choice of Alaska as the place for this hard work away from society may have been influenced by the 1925 Charlie Chaplin filmThe Gold Rush, which Brecht saw in March 1926 (Hecht 199). Further influences from that film will be noted. Secondly, Brecht's sense of U.S. geography was more metaphorical than realistic (see Willett for a description of "carefree Brechtian geography" (41)).

110 the new circumstances of their existence in Mahagonny, but Alaska remains

for Paul a place of refuge and escape from the realities of the current

moment, especially at the very moment when his life is threatened. Indeed,

when Paul Ackermann realizes in scene 16 that he does not have the money to pay for his bill, he takes a momentary "Flucht in die Illusion, in den

Rausch-Traum" (Weissstein 291) of his memories of Alaska. Regardless, the cold reality of life in a capitalist world where debts can be incurred and must be paid intervenes as Moses demands payment. For as these men discover, the lure of "Ruhe und Eintracht" in Mahagonny turns out to be deceiving. Not only are the pleasures offered by the city unfulfilling and dangerous to the point of death, but ultimately, the homosocial bonds created in the masculine-dominated idyll of Alaska cannot survive in the supposed idyll created to take advantage of their desire for male pleasures.

Mahagonny is established to take advantage of the postponed fantasies of hard-working people. The lure of "kapitalistischer Blütentraume"

(Joost 139) eventually destroy the homosocial bonds which Paul and his comrades had developed in Alaska, reducing each of them into "egoistischen

Einzelgangem" (Seliger 145). Mahagonny is not the corrupt city of decay, the

Chicago of Brechfs earlier imagination, but rather a "falsch-utopische, pseudo-idyllische Aufmachung" (Mennemeier 300). There are no familial affiliative structures in Mahagonny to complicate the analysis of the effects of

III capitalism on human relationships and behavior. Mahagonny Is a capitalist

society in its purest state, where everything is a commodity and everyone is

either a seller or a buyer. The city of Mahagonny is founded by Willy, der

Prokurist, Dreieinigkeitsmoses and Leokadja Begbick, a character familiar

from Mann ist Mann, to take advantage of the contemporary desire to escape

the pressures and dangers of city living.

Aber dieses ganze Mahagonny 1st nur, weil allés so schlecht ist Weil keine Ruhe herrscht Und keine Eintracht Und weil es nichts gibt Woran man sich halten kann. {^BFA 2, 337)

In both Mann ist Mann ar\6 here, Begbick is a hardened woman who has

learned to manipulate the system to her advantage after being abandoned by a man. She continues to be an "ausbeutende Ausgebeutete" (Mennemeier

300), who continues to manipulate others through her basic awareness that money lies at the root of everything. Although the city is founded as a retreat from the pressures of the everyday work, this is not an altruistic act on the part of Begbick, Moses and Willy. Instead, Mahagonny is founded purely out of a profit motive and their own desire not to work:

Seht, alle Leute, die von dort herunterkamen, sagten, daB die Flüsse das Gold sehr ungem hergeben. Es ist eine schlimme Arbeit, und wir konnen nicht arbeiten. Aber ich habe diese Leute gesehen, und ich sage euch, sie geben das Gold her! Ihr bekommt leichter das Gold von Mannem als von Flüssen!

112 Darum laBt uns hier eine Stadt gründen Und sie nennen Mahagonny Das heiBt: Netzestadt!{BFA 2 , 336)

Mahagonny is established as a place for hard-working men to recuperate from their labors and to spend the money they have earned. The pleasures which the city offers are specifically masculine pleasures:

Überall gibt es Mühe und Arbeit Aber hier gibt es SpaB. Denn es ist die Wollust der Manner Nicht zu leiden und allés zu dürfen. Das 1st der Kern des Goldes. Gin und Whisky Madchen und Knaben. Und eine Woche ist hier: Sieben Tage ohne Arbeit Und die groBen Taifune kommen nicht bis hierher.{BFA 2 , 336)

Every pleasure imaginable is available: liquor, boxing, even the choice of girl or boy^ as sexual object. The worker has been separated from immediate pleasure derived from his labor and pleasure has become a distant goal to be obtained in the future. These "durch entfremdete Arbeit und Ausbeutung charakterisierten Produktionsverhaltnisse [bringen] jenes pervertierte

Glücksbedürfnis der Menschen hervor, das dem freizeitindustriellen

Unternehmen seinen Erfolg allererst ermoglicht" (Joost 139). Indeed, Begbick establishes Mahagonny as destination for pleasure without any worries or work.

^ However, it should be noted, that except for the mention in Begbick's foundational statement in scene{BFA 1 2, 336), male prostitutes are not present elsewhere in this piece.

113 Paul Ackermann and his comrades have arrived at the moment of

Mahagonn/s first crisis, in which a number of people are departing without

first spending all of their available funds. As Jakob remarks:

Das 1st seltsam, das die weggehn. Wo es schon ist, da bleibt man. Wenn da nur nicht etwas faul ist. {,BFA 2, 344)

By scene 8, however, Paul's comrades have become quite comfortable in

Mahagonn/s pleasurable surroundings, where "Wunderbar ist das

Heraufkommen des Abends / Und schon sind die Gesprache der Manner unter

sich!" {BFA 2, 349). Jakob, Heinrich and Joe have found in Mahagonny a level

of continuity of the homosocial bonding they enjoyed while in Alaska, but this

new comradery of consumption is mediated through money and has replaced

the simpler, purer pleasure of male comradery established through the

common labor the men shared in Alaska. Through the interference of money

and externally imposed rules and regulations, the bonds have been

weakened, transforming the homosociality from a more or less natural

occurrence to yet another method of social control. Only Paul notices that

"etwas fehit"{^BFA 2, 349) and tries to depart the city, even if it means

breaking the bonds which tie him to the other men. The other three

lumberjacks react in a manner similar to the three soldiersMann in ist Mann

114 and the members of the collectiveF ain tz e r^ i\6 use a threat of violence in attempt to force Paul to give up his outburst of egoism and remain in the group:

Wir schlagen dich einfach nieder Ach, Paule, bis du wieder Ein Mensch bist! (ÆF/12, 351)

The collectives in these three works share a common definition of humanity in which individuality is always subsumed to the interests of the collective.

Jakob, Joe and Heinrich are unreflective in their satisfisfaction with the simple pleasures of Mahagonny. The three cannot understand Paul's deep-rooted dissatisfaction that "etwas fehlt" and dismiss it as an irrational outburst: "So, jetzt hast du dich ausgesprochen, und jetzt kommst du hübsch wieder mit nach Mahagonny" 2, 351).

Although the men had been working for the money which would fund their visit to Mahagonny, money was itself meaningless in the Alaskan context. The men had formed their bond because of their common experience and struggle to survive the harsh conditions of their employment, a situation not unlike the trenches of World War I in which the group in

coalesces. The men M in ahagonny, however, are not returning to a homefront devastated by the absence and loss of a whole generation of men.

Instead, they find themselves in "ein auf Reichtum gegrundetes

Schlaraffenland des Nichtstuns und des Genusses" (Seliger 145), where

115 peace and harmony are manufactured and retailed as a commodity. The overt ubiquity of money means that relationships are valued as financial exchanges and loyalty and love are reduced to commodities for sale or exchange. In particular, as Theodor Adorno writes, "[d]ie Verdinglichung der zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen wird ins Bild der Prostitution geschlagen, und was Liebe ist, geht einzig aus den rauchenden Triimmem von

Knabenphantasien sexueller Macht hier auf' (115).

Paul's dissatisfaction lies largely in the regimented lack of responsibility. The men had envisioned Mahagonny as a place where they could partake of the pleasures which they had long denied themselves. These pleasures, which had been celebrated as freedom from work, are indeed no freedom at all, but rather a scheme by Begbick and her partners to exploit the men into sacrificing their earnings for the sake of frivolous pleasures. Joe,

Heinrich and Jakob cannot understand the source of Paul's dissatisfaction and enumerate the various pleasures available to them in Mahagonny:

Jo e Hast du nicht Gin und billigen Whisky? Pa u l Zu billig! H e in r ic h Und Ruhe und Eintracht! Pa u l Z u ruhig! Jakob Wenn du einen Fisch essen willst Kannst du dir einen fangen. Pa u l Das macht mich nicht glücklich. Jo e Man raucht. Pa u l Man raucht. He in r ic h Man schlaft etwas. Pa u l Man schlaft.

116 Jakob Man sc h w lm m t. Pa u l Man h o lt sich elne Banane! Jo e Man schaut das Wasser an. Pa ul zuckt nur noch m it den Achsetn. H e in r ic h Man verglBt. Pa ul Aber etwas fehlt.{BFA 2, 349)

Paul's dismissive tone increases as this exchange continues until he finally

indicates the ridiculous nature of all of these pleasures when "etwas fehlt".

For Joe, Jakob and Heinrich these pleasures represent the return for their

hard labor in Alaska, but their participation in this pleasure is unreflective.

The city may be awash in material riches, but these material goods come with

the price of destroying the comradery Paul enjoyed back in Alaska. Unlike his

comrades, Paul is able to see that "fur Geld gibt es allé Scheinideale, nur

keine tragfesten Werte" (Jesse 75). As with ShlinkIm Dickicht,in all the signs

of capitalist success are alienating Paul from an existence in which the

struggle to survive was elemental:

Ach, mit eurem ganzen Mahagonny Wird nie ein Mensch glücklich werden Weil zu viel Ruhe herrscht Und zu viel Eintracht Und weil's zu viel gibt Woran man sich halten kann. {BFA 2, 354)

A material world, where "[e]s zu viel gibt / Woran man sich halten kann," without conflict and marked with a too-ready acquiescence to the status quo cannot be satisfying for a man like Paul Ackermann.

117 The abundance of material pleasures in Mahagonny Is segregated from the reality of the hard labor which has allowed Paul and his comrades to afford their stay in this city of pleasure. But Paul lacks "innerhalb der

Gesellschaft die vollige Freiheit, die er in den Natur genuB, und er ist es, der aus Tatendrang die letzten Verhaltensregein beseitigt" (Seliger 145). Paul's

"revolutionary" act of proclaiming a new foundation of the city of Mahagonny is rooted in his Baal-like drive to live life to its fullest:

LaBt euch nicht betrügen DaB Leben wenig ist. Schlürft es in vollen Zügen Es kann euch nicht genügen Wenn ihr es lassen müBt.{^BFA 2, 358)

A natural existence is under constant threat, but it is exactly that threat of disaster which gives life its significance. The hurricane which threatens the city of Mahagonny at the middle of the play represents the potential réintroduction of nature. Paul finds this to be his opportunity to attempt to reestablish the bonds between him and the three other men in Alaska. The appearance of material abundance in Mahagonny had masked the truly destructive powers of both nature and human relationships:

Siehst du, so ist die Welt: Ruhe und Eintracht, das gibt es nicht Aber Hurrikane, die gibt es Und Taifune, wo sie nicht auslangen. Und gerade so ist der Mensch: Er muB zerstoren, was da ist.i^BFA 2, 356)

I 18 The thrill posed by the risk of a natural disaster leads Paul Ackermann to

propose "a new code of 'asocial' behaviour" (Milfull 36), when he proclaims:

Im Intéressé der Ordnung Zum Besten des Staates Fur die Zukunft der Menschheit Zu deinem eigenen Wohlbefinden Darfst du! {^BFA 2 , 359)

By the apparent elimination o f the rules and regulations of the old

pleasure idyll of Mahagonny, Paul believes that he has restored the natural

existence which he enjoyed with his comrades in Alaska. Paul is able to

reestablish temporarily the bond between him and the three others when all four join to sing:

So, wie wenn's einen Hurrikan gibt So wollen wir immer leben Wollen tun nur, was uns beliebt Denn es kann einen Hurrikan gebén. Jeden Tag Wenn er mag Kann er uns an den Leben.(BFA 2, 359)

This fulfillment is achieved by living in the moment, without taking into account the consequences for one's actions. However, this new

"Augenblicksutopie des hedonistischen Genusses " (VoGkamp 163) is still being purchased for a price. Begbick agrees to this new order for her city only after Paul offers her compensation: "Ja, denn ich, der ich lustig bin, zerschlage lieber deine Tafein und deine Gesetze, und deine Mauem müssen* hin sein. Wie der Hurrikan es auch macht, so mache ich es. Du bekommst

I 19 Geld dafür. Hier ist es"{^BFA 2 , 359). Paul's vision of a renewed natural existence resembling that of Alaska is tainted from the beginning because it is a purchased idyll and because the impending natural disaster which brought it about is diverted at the last second away from the city. There is also no hard labor which had made the carousing the men enjoyed in Alaska a bonding experience. Even though the city of Mahagonny now gives the appearance of being without rules, the rule at the heart of its existence, the profit motive, has not been removed. The city itself has not changed. In the scenes following the hurricane, the masculine pleasures of eating, boxing, sex and drinking which had been carried out in "Ruhe und Eintracht" are now amplified to the point of being grotesque. In this montage of excess, Jakob,

Paul and Joe fulfill their desires beyond the point of reason. Paul's attempt to restore the utopian homosocial idyll from his memories of Alaska has been reduced to a thrill-seeking utopia of living only in the moment. "Da6 Brecht die Skala der Genüsse hier [...] auf die grotesk übersteigerten Bedütfnissse des Konsumierens reduziert, ermoglicht ihm eine satirisçhe Überspitzung und gestische Demonstration der Grenzen auch anarchischer Subjektutopien"

(VoBkamp 163). One by one, Joe, Jakob and Paul (but not Heinrich) ignore the warnings of their comrades and seek to indulge their desires, as part of

120 their effort to live life to Its extreme. The pursuit of life to its fullest which has now overtaken the city drives the people of Mahagonny to extreme acts of self-sacrifice:

Auf der See Und am Land Werden alien Leuten ihre Haute abgezogen Darum sitzen alle Leute Und verkaufen ihre Haute Denn die Haute werden jederzeit mit Dollars aufgewogen. {BFA 2 , 369)

The pursuit of pleasure has its price and the people are forced to compromise their personal integrity to pay for the bills which are accumulating:

Doch wer zahit euch eure Rausche? Denn die Haute, die sind billig Und der Whisky, der ist teuer.{BFA 2, 370)

Mahagonny is once again unmasked as a false utopia, where Begbick allowed the men to pursue their pleasures to their fullest extent, knowing full well that the time would come when she would say: "Aber jetzt bezahlen, meine

Herren!"(^BFA 2, 370). Thus, Paul's dreams of a life lived to its fullest come crashing down around him and he is forced to face the consequences of his actions.

In this world of excess, the lumberjacks "sind zu egoistischen

Einzelgangern ausgeartet" (Seliger 145). Joe, Jakob and Paul are so driven in their egoistical pursuit of pleasure that their relationship dissolves, leading to the end of the group, as Jakob and Joe are now dead, and Paul is facing trial

121 for his inability to fulfill his contractual obligation to pay for this life without

limits. When Paul is brought to trial, he is prosecuted and judged by the

injured parties themselves. His defense attorney is Heinrich, the sole

surviving colleague from Alaska. Heinrich has managed to survive because he

has adapted to the economic necessities of life in the city. He refuses to bet

on Joe in the fight (scene 15), because it was not practical:

Joe, du stehst mir menschlich nah Doch um Geld hinauszuwerfen Ging's mir zu sehr auf die Nerven Als ich Dreieinigkeitsmoses sah.{^BFA 2, 366)

Heinrich repeats the same sentiment when Paul asks him to pay his debts.

The retention of enough money and a moderation in the pursuit of pleasure are the only ways to survive in the city of Mahagonny. Life lived to its fullest,

Heinrich has learned, is of no good when that life is ended prematurely. He also will not allow a homosocial bond developed far away to interfere with the adaptation of his life the circumstances of Mahagonny. After refusing him money, Paul implores Heinrich to remember "ein Augenblick unaufhebbaren

Glücks" (VoBkamp 165):

Paul Heini! Erinnerst du dich noch An unsere Zeit dort in Alaska? Die sieben Winter Die groBen Kalten Wie wir zusammen Die Baume fêliten Und gib mir das Geld. H e in r ic h Paul, ich erinnere mich noch

122 An unsere Zeit dort in Alaska. Die sieben Winter Die groBen Kalten Wie wir beide Die Baume fôllten Und wie schwer es war Das Geld zu verdienen Drum kann ich, Paule, dir Das Geld nicht geben.{^BFA 2, 377-78)

But the invocation of the memories of Alaska no longer works. Heinrich now recalls the hard labor which allowed him to come to this city, where the realities of life have irretrievably separated him and Paul. Paul is the embodiment of the egoist who is unable to adapt to changed circumstances.

Heinrich represents a figure such as Galy Gay Mannin is t Mann yN\\o has successfully given up his identity and history and allowed himself to be subsumed into the exploitative whole of Mahagonny. Indeed, Paul's choice of

Heinrich as his defense attorney is highly ironic, as Paul is being tried for doing exactly the opposite. Obviously, then, Paul's defense is ineffectual and he is sentenced to death

Wegen Mangel an Geld Was das groBte Verbrechen ist Das auf dem Erdenrund vorkommt. {BFA 2, 381)

Paul is "kein echter Revolutionar, aber auch kein echter Burger und

Wildwestmann, sondem ein Fetzen Produktivkraft, der die Anarchie realisiert und aufdeckt und deshalb sterben muB" (Adorno 118).

123 Paul Ackermann has learned that "all die Genüsse, die er sich in

Mahagonny kaufen konnte, ihn letzten Endes nicht befriedigen konnten"

(Seliger 149). Paul's inability to return to Alaska, the place of his only happiness, is a negation of the possibility of a return to the idyllic homosocial life lived to its fullest. Once the homosocial bond has t>een allowed to weaken through money, it cannot be restored. As Paul is led to his execution, he warns the others in the city: "Die Freude, die ich kaufte, war keine Freude, und die Freiheit für Geld was keine Freiheit. Ich a6 und wurde nicht satt, ich trank und wurde dursbg. Gebt mir doch ein Glas Wasser!"{^BFA 2, 386)

Happiness, then, is to be found neither in the pleasures for sale in

Mahagonny nor in the misguided attempt to regain the lost homosocial unity of Alaska. At the end of the play, Brecht does not offer a clear alternative to the hell he envisions in the city of Mahagonny. Indeed, there is no way out of this hell, from which no one can "uns und euch und niemand helfen"{^BFA 2,

389). As we shall see Fin a tze r, male collectives in Brecht's work rarely survive for a long time because of the often necessary egoism of their members.

124 CHAPTER 5

A DEAD END: DER UNTERGANGDBSEGOISTENFATZER

In the fragments of a piece he entitledDer Untergang des Egoisten

F atzer, Brecht portrays the dissolution of a male collective as he did in

M ahagonny. This piece also returns to the military themes which occupied

Brecht in M ann is t M ann, where the lone individual Galy Gay is subsumed into a pre-existing collective structure. Here, the zealous Fatzer uses his charisma to convince three other soldiers at the end of World War I to desert the

German army and return back to Germany to agitate for a revolution which would end the slaughter on the battlefields. But this revolution is ultimately doomed to failure. Fatzer is unable to keep his leadership effective because his egoism distracts him from meeting the basic survival needs of the collective. Büsching, Kaumann and Koch contribute to its feilure because they have become dependent on Fatzer's charisma instead of developing their own

Individual roles within the collective (Streisand 315). The revolution is also doomed because it lacks a clear political agenda beyond the overthrow of the current regime, which would lead into a state of anarchy. F a tze r

125 reflects Brecht's continuing attempts to define the limits of the individual within a collective. As inMann ist Mann, this material reflects a continued ambivalence about the role of the collective for Brecht, who was confronted with both the negative examples of the Freikorps and the National Socialists and what he had hoped to be the positive example of the socialist collective,

Fatzer stands at the center of much revolutionary potential, in which a new role for the individual can be created within the context of a renewed vision of social cohesion. But, In the end, Fatzer is unable to organize his revolutionary zeal and create a cohesive, pragmatic plan which would lead to success.

Fatzet^ takes place at the end of World War I^, when Europe, and

Germany in particular, were in a chaotic state of crisis in which the political and social assumptions of previous generations were being questioned and reformulated. But unlike the Expressionists who saw this moment as a chance for a new humanity, the project focuses on those who have survived.

* Brecht wrote over 400 manuscript and typescript pages between 1926 and 1930 in five phases as identified by the editorsBFA. of For a summary, seeBFA 10,1115-20 and the table in Steinweg (230-55). Brecht experimented with dramaturgical techniques throughout the phases, ranging from a more traditional Schaustiick to what was to become theLehrstOck. Work on Fatzer V4as interrupted with work onDreigroschenoper, Mahagonny avvA the first two Lehrstûcke{Der Ftug des Lindtjerghs and Das Badener LehrstOck vom Einverstandnis). The fifth phase, as it is called by BFA, were two scenes and a poem Brecht published in the Versuche in 1930. After this publication, work stopped on ttie project and it remained a fragment at Brecht's death. TheBFA edition marks the first time most of this material has appeared in print. Hence, much of the older criticism is limited due to the lack of an earlier definitive edition and the confusing array of documents in the Bertolt-Brecht-Archiv. ^ In the first, second, fourth and fifth phases, Brecht sets the play in the last months of World War I, with the coming attempts at revolution in Munich and Berlin (as well as

126 who have lost all sense of connection to time and space, a situation which

makes their own thoughts and observations unreliable:

Mich lahmt das Morgen und Dies unverbindliche Heut! So sitzend Zwischen noch nicht und schon nicht mehr Glaub ich nicht, was ich denk! [...] Mir scheint, ich bin vorlaufig [...] {^BFA 10, 440)

This abiding sense of being ephemeral haunts Fatzer and his actions

throughout the fragment. The folly of belief in immutable human nature is

criticized:

Immer Denkt der Mensch, er steht In der Welt unveranderiich. Die Luft kann Einmal voll Feuer sein, den Boden Hat er gesehn, wie er wankte. Er stand Ohne Anderung der namliche und neben sich War er gewohnt, zu sehn Den Menschen ganz unverandert. Falsch Boden blieb Boden bald Luft blieb Luft, aber der Mensch Schrumpfte hinweg vor Furcht und dehnte Sich vor Torheit aus. i^BFA 10, 399)

It is this fundamental realization that human nature is unstable and unreliable

that allows Fatzer to question the authority of received identities and power

structures, which leads to a revolutionary zeal for experimentation and

rebellion for its own sake. Fatzer is unable to create an ideological structure

to support the revolutionary goals he wishes to promote.

counterrevolutionary activities of the Freikorps); in the third phase, the play is set after the war {^BFA 10, 454), where the women assume their husbands have gone missing.

127 In F a tze r, the collective cannot survive the transition from spontaneous rebellion, catalyzed by Fatzer, to a planned revolution. Fatzer^s egoism repeatedly distracts him from fulfilling his leadership function for the others.

But this egoism also leads to Fatzer being the only character who makes any outreach to the world external to the collective. Indeed, Büsching, Kaumann and Koch are at the beginning so attracted by Fatzer^s charisma that they abdicate any responsibility:

Das ist das gute an dem Fatzer, da6 er So viel Appétit hat, daB es Für uns mitiangt. Und daB er ein solcher Egoist ist DaB es für uns noch mitiangt. (Æ64 10, 465)

This personality cult which the three soldiers have created around Fatzer represents one of the weaknesses of both conservative and radical revolution.

The three soldiers have ceded authority and power to the leader of the collective in order to gain favor and recognition from the leader. Out of fear for their own survival, Büsching, Koch and Kaumann remain hidden and do not make contact with the wider world which might allow them to spread their revolutionary message. They are so hesitant and deliberate that their revolution goes nowhere. They are not drawn into this group by a strong ideology, but rather by the strong personality of Fatzer. This collective's lack of larger purpose will result in its eventual demise, as Brecht wrote in an early

128 sketch^ from the first phase: "Sie haben nichts gelemt als ihre Solidaritat,

diese ist es, die sie vemichtet"{BFA 10, 388). In this collective there is a

complex web of multiple homosocial relationships among the soldiers, which

extend even to homoeroticism (Streisand 317).

Brecht wrote several versions of the scene where the men decide to

desert the army. In all of the versions, the desertion is considered to be a

taking control of one's own destiny in the face of the ruthless randomness of

the soldiers' fates on the battlefield. In the first phase, this scene

demonstrates this random fatalism by showing the group of soldiers throwing

stones like dice to predict their fates. Since all four men have rolled black,

indicating that they will not escape the war alive, Fatzer proposes that they deny the established order of things and take control of their own destiny:

Ich mache Keinen Krieg mehr, sondem ich gehe Jetzt heim gradewegs, ich scheiBe Auf die Ordnung der Welt. Ich bin Verloren{BFA 10, 394)

Since Fatzer is already "verloren," he has nothing more to lose by risking everything and deserting. The others' reaction to this proposal varies from version to version, ranging from immediate enthusiasm to a reluctance marked by a fear of authority. In a version from the third phase, the other soldiers voice their fears about going against the authorities which have

^ Part of the material included in BFA were Brecht's sketches of potential plot arrangements. 129 placed them in this very situation: "Da wirst du erschossen. Schmitt / Der erschieBt dich"i^BFA 10, 453). But Fatzer retorts with an even stronger denial of others' authority:

Ich glaube nicht mehr An Schmitt, da er ja Sicher gestorben ist Wir aber brechen jetzt diesen Krieg ab und Verlassen diese Schlacht Vier Mann an einem Mittwoch Im dritten Jahr des Kriegs In einem Tank verloren Aus den Augen der Unsem, nachdem wir Auf einem Flecken mit Eisen geschoren Haltgemacht fur drei Minuten Dies tun wir Zu entgehen der Vemichtung.{^BFA 10, 453)

The authoritarian structures which created the war and brought these men into it no longer hold any power for Fatzer. In the resulting vacuum of power,

Fatzer seizes the leadership role and turns this desertion into a life-affirming act by which the men escape the inevitable annihilation on the battlefield.

Indeed, abandoning the battle is an act of reclaiming the humanity which the war has stripped from the soldiers: "Viele / Wollen nicht mehr Gras fressen /

Und kaputt gehn / Was menschlich ware"{BFA 10, 395).

The life-affirming qualities of the desertion are reinforced with imagery which characterize it as a rebirth. Before the men agree to Fatzer's plan to

130 desert as given in the third phase, they make the protest of unborn children unwilling to leave the womb, even though they recognize that the womb is no longer able to protect them:

Allés lauft gegen uns, arbeitet und Halt nicht an Unsere Mutter ist ein Tank und Kann uns nicht schCitzen Wir müssen Kaputtgeheni^BFA 10, 453)

In a song from the third phase, this rebirth is seen as a liberation from the constraints of a society decomposing at its core:

Dieser Tank hat uns das zweitemal geboren Eurer Gerate konnten wir uns nicht bedienen Vererbte verseuchte Geschlechter Und euer Stolz über weitere Maschinen 1st uns nachts vor dem Einschlafen noch ein Gelachter! (5F/4 10, 450)

This rebirth through desertion from the tank which is shared by the soldiers makes them a metaphorical new family, in which they share a unique relationship which no one else can share. As Jan Knopf writes, "den Mannem steht ein neues Leben vor" (353) and with this new life come new relationships. The homosocial bonds which the men shared as members of the military are strengthened by their desertion and are thus made essential for their common survival.

131 The soldiers' radical act of separating themselves from the military

comes under the condemnation of the Chorus in later phases, as Brecht

worked on transforming the material into a Lehrstück:

Richtig, da ihr aber Weggegangen seid von der Masse und also Falsch gehandelt habt, 1st euer Untergang voraussehbar {BFA 10, 478)

By deserting, the men were blinded by Fatzer's overriding egoism into

abandoning their fellow soldiers and thus failing in their chance to turn the

negative "Krieg der Volker" into "Bürgerkrieg," which would have led to the

end of all wars {BFA 10,478). The decision to desert is labeled in one scene

as "Der Sündefall" {BFA 10, 475), which theologically is both the unfortunate turning against authority and the beginning of a new phase of history which would eventually lead to redemption. In this same sketch (B 55), first the

Chorus rejoices C'Jubel des Chors") because "die Zeit des Kriegs / Der

Unkenntnis" is over{BFA 10, 475). But, after it becomes clear that Fatzer is only leading the group to ruin, the Chorus declares that the men are no . longer human because they have removed themselves from their "natural" place in history:

Da sich diese vier Selbst gedrangt haben aus Ihrer ganzen Umwelt und sich stellten Unter einen neuen tierischen Aspekt und Unter Gestimen, welche

132 Unbekannt sind, und sich trennten von Uns übermütig Oder unwissend, wird bald fur sie Fremdes geschehen. [...] [...] Abgeriegelt Vom natürlichen Dasein, werden sie eingehen ohne Verstandliche Laute. Was der Untergehende sagt Das ist wertlos. Was sind die Taten Dessen, der ohne Hoffhung ist? Er gleicht Keinem Menschen mehr{^BFA 10,479)

The differentiation of this group of four soldiers and their separation from the

great unknowing mass of soldiers leads to the inevitable failure of their

mission. As Brecht writes in one of his sketches:

Ihre Odyssee beginnt mit ihrem durch den Indivldualisten Fatzer gegebenen Intum, sie konnten, einzein, den Krieg abbrechen. Hlerdurch, wo sie, um zu leben,sich von der Masse scheiden, verlieren sie ihr Leben von vomherein. Sie kommen nie mehr zur Masse zuriick. (B/v4 10, 468)

In the Chorus' view, the abandonment of the military was a lost opportunity

to create revolutionary zeal among their disenchanted fellow soldiers and

counter to the best interests of the larger collective of the masses.

Once the soldiers return to Germany and commence their underground existence in civilian society, they come under the protection of Kaumann's wife, Therese.'’ Mrs. Kaumann's cooperation is necessary for their immediate survival as well as the potential success of their revolution. Fatzer recognizes that this continued cooperation depends on her not being dissatisfied with the

'* Brecht repeatedly changed the names of the three soldiers in successive drafts, even if there was no particular change in the character himself. In order to simplify matters, I will refer to Kaumann's wife as Mrs. Kaumann, as that is the name she most often is given in the drafts C'die Kaumann'^. 133 even harsher conditions which come with hiding deserters and potential revolutionaries. As Brecht wrote, the "Verankerung der ganzen Weibersache

[1st] in der Wohnungsfrage. Die vier erkennen, daB jeder Streit um das Weib ihnen das Dach überm Kopf wegziehen muB"{^BFA 10, 436). The homosocial collective is unable to survive on its own; it depends on a woman for its continued existence, but it is her very presence which causes the most discord among the group. The introduction of a woman changes the dynamics of the homosocial relations of the group, but also offers them an exemplary model of the dissatisfaction and frustration experienced by the women who have remained at home while their men were at war.

When Fatzer makes one of his first reconnaisance tours of the city of

Mülheim^ he observes first hand the frustration and stagnation which the war has brought to the people of the city. He sees in this frustration a revolutionary potential, but, as we shall see, Fatzer lacks the ability to catalyze change in the city.

Dabei will ich Mich umsehn, wie's meinem Freund Dem Krieg geht. In was für Kleidem geht das Volk? Das Volk geht In schlechten Kleidem, seh ich. Ihr biBchen Schafwolle und Flachs haben sie Schon aufgestapelt hinter Bajonetten, verteilend Faden für Faden. Dieser Krieg geht In schlechtem Schuhwerk; da geht er Also nicht lang. Auch glaub ich schon zu sehen:

5 Published by Brecht in 1930 inVersuche as "Rundgang des Fatzer durch die Stadt Mûlheim." 134 Arm ist armer und reich relcher jetzt und Zwischendrin 1st nichts: das ist auch gut. Kinder, die bei der Geburt nichts wiegen und Blasse Mauler haben und Nicht mehr schwerer werden. Das ist gut. Gut auch, daB da bald Winter wird, das Zehrt am Krieg, wenn das Volk friert.{^BFA 10, 500)

Fatzer observes that the conditions are right for a revolution, but he lacks the ideological apparatus to incite rebellion among the women. The women, who are standing in line for a promised ration of flour, are more concerned with the practical necessities of life and not that the time is "good" for a revolution. As the women say to Fatzer after he suggests they break down the door of the bakery: "Das ist auch einer, deris mit dem Maul macht / So einen wie dich sollt man totschieBen!"{BFA 10, 502). The women's pragmatism leaves them little use for the charismatic leadership of a Fatzer.

This is a moment of crisis which should have provided the perfect opportunity for Fatzer's revolutionary rhetoric. As Judith Wilke writes:

DaB allés weitergeht, wird nicht als Fortschritt Oder als bloBes Prinzip des Lebens gedeutet, sondem als Zeichen von Stillstand und Stagnation, jetzt im Zusammenhang einer fatalistisch gepragten Wahrnehmung sexueller Triebhaftigkeit in blutiger Zeit. [...] Darauf zielen auch Fatzers Reden, mit denen er die Frauen hinter der Front provoziert, ihre eigene Funktionalisierung wahrzunehmen und auszusprechen. (92, 94)

135 But the women are all too aware of their functionallzation and they have

heard enough of empty rhetoric. They want the war to end, of course, but they know that the war and Its outcome are in the hands of men who are benefitting from their misery.

In this initial walk through town, Fatzer failed to recognize the true locus of revolutionary potential in the women of Mülheim. Their frustration with the inability to acquire the goods necessary for basic survival extends also to a more personal frustration and discord due to the absence of their husbands. The expectations and rewards associated with marriage have broken down for these women, as their husbands, their means of economic and emotional support, have left them behind to scrape together whatever existence they can. The breakdown of the moral responsibility of the men to provide for their families, has resulted In the women learning to cope with the exigencies of their own struggle for survival. This end to strict morality has allowed for a new sense of liberation for the women. The crisis situation has led the women of Mülheim to dismiss the romantic notions of love and demand satisfaction of their natural libidinal desires.

Was eine Frau 1st, die Braucht Nicht nur Schleimsuppe und Das da und mit der Liebe Das ist für die GroBkopfeten, aber In der Nacht braucht sie einen Der ihr's tut, das sagten sogar Die Doktors!{BFA 10, 406)

136 Only the "GroBkopfeten"® have any use for the antiquated rhetoric of

romantic love; the current crisis situation demands a more pragmatic solution.

Half-hearted protests of bourgeois propriety such as when Mrs. Kaumann

declares "Ich habe einen Mann, das steht an der / Tür mit dem Namen"{^BFA

10, 406) do nothing to change the current situation. In each successive phase

of writing, Mrs. Kaumann's demand for overall personal satisfaction is

strengthened. Through the crisis experience of the war, Mrs. Kaumann has

lost the last remnants of the morality which had kept her faithful to her

husband and she now demands her rights as a woman:

Wo sind sie? Drei Jahre Sind zu viele Jahre! Warum kommt er nicht Und legt sich auf mich drauf? Heute hab ich beschlossen, mein Fleisch Zu befriedigen. Meine BloBe 1st schon verdorrt, sicher Meine Zeit ist schon aus! Die Kühe und die Hündinnen Werden befriedigt, wenn ihre Zeit ist Und ich verlange, daB ich auch Befriedigt werde! DaB ich nicht immer an mein SchoB denke, der leer ist Sondern lebe wie ihr!{^BFA 10, 484-5)

6 GroBkopfeten appears to be a neologism created by Brecht based on the participial form. 137 The war has changed Mrs. Kaumann and her view of marriage. After their arrival, the omnipresence of the homosocial collective to which her husband now belongs is preventing her from receiving the sexual satisfaction that she demands as her right:

[...] wolit ihr Euch nicht/die Luft anschaun Mitunter oder ihr geht hinaus Auf den Abtritt, daB ich den meinen Allein treff, ich sag's jedem: Er soli mir an die Beine Langen, es dauert ein paar Minuten, ihr entschuldigtis so lang Drauf hab ich Anspruch. {^BFA 10,418)

But the experience of war has changed her husband as well. The homosocial comradery as well as the homoerotic attraction to Fatzer as leader has turned

Kaumann away from any consideration o f heterosexual sex:

Ihr konnt herinnenbleiben Wenn ich Gras freB, das merk Dir, hab ich keine Lust Mit einem Weib! Und Dabei bleibt's.^BFA 10, 419)

Kaumann's abnegation of his responsibility^ as sexual partner to his wife produces the conditions for the conflicts which pose a number of dangers for the group:

^ Brecht writes in a 1925 comment of human relations being contractual, especially that between man and woman. "Zum Einhalten von Vertragen gehort Takt" 21, 112)— obviously something that Kaumann has failed to do. This breaking of the contract will set the stage for the sexual freedom granted to Mrs. Kaumann.

138 Gefahren fur die vier:

1) Die Frau, wenn ungestillt 2) Der Besitzkomplex des Leeb® 3) Der Frelheltsdurst des Fatzeri^BFA 10, 467, italics in original)

All three of these dangers become combined when "Fatzers Lust auf die

Kaumann kollidiert mit dem Besitzanspruch Kaumanns wie auch mit dem

Anspruch, die Gruppe zusammenzuhalten" (Mahlke 182).

As stated earlier, Mrs. Kaumann s continued cooperation is necessary for the survival and success of the collective hiding out in her home. All four of the men recognize that her need for satisfaction must be appeased or they risk ejection from their hiding place. Acting as a "paternalistic, top-down apparatus of functionaries" (Kruger 235), the men vote by majority rule to take control of Mrs. Kaumann s sexuality only to set it free again:

Sie beschlieBen, das Weib sei frei, aber keiner von ihnen dürfe etwas mit ihr machen. Wichb'ger sei die Einigkeit, da diese lebensnotwendig, die mit ihren Tellem Herausgehenden halt der Mann auf mit der Aussage, er habe keine Lust, mit einem Weib zu schlafen, solang er solches Fressen fresse.i^BFA 10, 435)

Instead of meeting her demand for true liberation, Mrs. Kaumann has been once again reduced to her utilitarian value to maintain social cohesion among the members of the collective. At the same time, the group attempts to create an explanation for denying Mrs. Kaumann sexual satisfaction from within the collective, by appealing to her sense of reason:

Kaumann was called Leeb in this particular sketch. 139 "Denn durch die Umstand Wurd uns dein Dach mehr als dein Bett. Dein Lager 1st wichtiger als durch dich, weil drauf Nicht Regen fëllt und Blick der Menschen fëllt Und konnen wir dir dein Lager nicht zahlen durch Umarmungen [...] Und drum Konnen wir auch nicht Dem Weib ans Fleisch greifen und erhoffen DaG es uns das Brot backt, sondem mussen Anrufen deine Vemunft, ob stark, ob schwach. iBFA 10,435, no closing quotation mark given in BFA)

The men do not want to complicate their sycophantic relationship with Mrs.

Kaumann as well as their own homosocial cohesion by introducing sexual politics and jealousies. This attempt to shape Mrs. Kaumann s revolutionary consciousness to meet the needs of the male-dominated collective remains unsuccessful.

The crisis of the war years and her husband's refusal to fulfill his sexual obligations have led Mrs. Kaumann to demand her sexual satisfaction.

But when Fatzer offers the chance to engage in "eine entpersonlichte

Sexualitat" (Streisand 318) in which "Liebe als physiologisches Bedürfnis" i^BFA 10, 524) is satisfied, she reacts negatively and wants to return to a romantic evaluation of sexuality. Mrs. Kaumann wants to assign significance to the sexual act, but this return to the old value system is impossible given the changed circumstances of her life:

140 Dann frage [Fatzer] sie, ob sie an Gott glaube? Oder ihn wenigstens fürchte? — Nicht mehr. — Warum dann fürchte sie, daB einer, ohne sich Zeit zu nehmen, seine Hosen auszuziehen, sich auf sie werfe, wisse, daB sie naB ist? — Weil's viel bedeutet. — Es bedeute nichts. (5/54 10, 471-72)

When Mrs. Kaumann is confronted with the harsh realities of a natural sexuality unlimited by the moral codes associated with romantic love and commitment, her attempt to give significance to an event is rebuffed by

Fatzer's egoism. The act of copulation when stripped of its romantic and social context becomes meaningless, a mere release of sexual tension. As

Fatzer continues

[...] in der Natur ist dies Geschaft eben dringend. Dies sieht man draus, daB Manner und Weiber oft, wenn sie nicht lieben, aus besonderen Umstanden, anderes taten, wovon man nicht spricht, aber nur aus Dummheit, denn's ist natürlich, ich sag's offen: ich tu's mitunter, ich weiB, auch du, s ist natürlich und rasch vorbei, nur fast zum Lachen [...]. (5/54 10,472)

Fatzer convinces Mrs. Kaumann to have sex with him for both egoistical reasons (his own desire for sexual satisfaction) and for the good of the collective (who need her continued cooperation), but this becomes Fatzer's

"erste Abweichung" (5/54 10, 470), which eventually leads to his demise.

Fatzer fails to turn Mrs. Kaumann's high degree of frustration into revolutionary zeal, just as he has failed to incite rebellion in every cause he encounters. The revolutionary promises made by the charismatic leader on

141 the battlefield come to naught because Fatzer is, in his egoistic way, unable to look beyond his own dissatisfaction and create situations which would take advantage of others' discord.

As the revolutionary potential fades away, the collective becomes more and more reactionary (Wilke 113). Fatzer's sexual act with Mrs. Kaumann and his inability to procure the meat necessary for their survival lead to increasing charges of egoism from the others, who are losing faith in their leader's ability to create the conditions for the revolution for which they are waiting.

Büsching, Kaumann and Koch had handed over control of their own fate to the charismatic Fatzer, whom they had hoped would bring them out of this situation:

DaB er ichsuchtig ist, das ist Gut! Er hat ein groBes Ich, das reicht Fur uns vier aus und für uns vier 1st er ichsüchtigl Der Kann uns helfenii^BFA 10, 442)

With each successive "Abweichung," however, the other members of the collective begin to assert the necessity of meeting their own needs before

Fatzer takes any small freedom they might grant him: "Fatzer musse bekommen, was Fatzer brauche, aber Fatzer musse hergeben, was sie brauchten" i^BFA 10, 434). The fascination and attraction to Fatzer which led

Kaumann, Koch and Büsching to join Fatzer's revolutionary collective have disappeared—the disciples now want to control the leader. But, Fatzer's

142 egoism is too strong to allow the others to mold him into the kind of leader

that they want. He refuses to be objectified and proposes with irony that he

be divided into the "useful part" and the "leftovers:"

Ich bin gegen eure mechanische Art Denn der Mensch ist kein Hebei. Auch habe ich starke Unlust, einzig zu tun Von vielen Taten die, welche mir nütziich. [...] Schatzt ab meinen Abgrund Setzt fur Unvorhergesehenes funf Behaltet von allem, was an mir ist Nur das euch Nütziiche. Der Rest ist Fatzer.{BFA 10, 495)

The collective which had coalesced around the dynamic leadership of Fatzer

cannot now take Fatzer apart and use only those bits which they find useful.

Fatzer's egoism prevents him from guaranteeing that his own interests will

never collide with those of the collective.

Fatzer's inability to provide for the needs of the collective has aroused

a strong resentment of the situation, especially from Koch:

Was hat es genützt? Jetzt Laufen wir wie Ratten in dieser Hohle herum, die keinen Provient Haben. {BFA 10, 416)

As Heiner Müller wrote of Koch: "Seine Reaktion auf das asoziale Verhalten

Fatzers laBt ihn so radikal werden, daB er den Boden der Tatsachen verlaBt

und reine Idéologie fabriziert. Er baut ein ungeheures ideologisches Gebaude auf, hetzt die Gruppe in einen Amoklauf"{Gesamme/te InW m erSl-Sl). But in the end, as Koch becomes more and more strident, Fatzer and the others

143 are unable to reach a compromise. When Fatzer presents himself to the group with the proposal that they abandon Mühlheim and leave together for a

better future elsewhere, he is confronted with a final demand for conformity:

Drum Fatzer, muSt du dich andern Jetzt in dieser Stund auf Dieser Stell und einmal tun Was wir sagen, und zwar nur: Weil wir mehr sind, namlich Zwei Oder drei.{BFA 10 ,44 7)

In the end, Koch, Kaumann and Büsching are unable to disentangle themselves from their dissatisfaction with Fatzer's failed leadership, that they demand Fatzer surrender to their wishes, even if it means the end of them all.® In one of his sketches, however, Brecht saw this acquiescence as a trap laid by Fatzer:

als er alle andem drei in Privates verwickelt — indem er sie veriockt, ihn zu vernichten, vemichtet er sierichù'gvé^ro. —, es, niemals den "AnschluB an morgen" zu verlieren, nie zu vergessen, was gewollt wird, allés andere als Hindemis zu sehen, nicht als hauptsachlich zu Bewalbgendes, was dann Ziel wird, richtig ware es fur sie, abzuhauen und dem Typ Fatzer die Beachtung zu versagen.{BFA 10, 468)

’ Compare "Das Lied vom SA-Mann" {BFA 11, 209-100, written and published in late 1931 and set to music by Eisler with an incessant march beat. Ich wollte nach links marschieren Nach rechts marschierte er Da lies ich mich kommandieren Und lief blind hinterher. [...] So stirbt mir jetzt mein Bruder Ich schlacht ihn selber hin Und weiS doch, daS, wenn er besiegt ist Ich selber verloren bin.

144 The collective, then, fails because its leader is unable to sacrifice his own egoism and because the other members are unable to sacrifice the level of investment they have placed his leadership. Although the release of Fatzer from his leadership role may have led to their continued survival as a group,

Büsching, Kaumann and Koch lack a pragmatic program and the skills necessary to bring a revolutionary message to the disgruntled public. As

Brecht wrote: "Sie gehen daran zugrund, daB sie Solidaritat anwenden auf einen, der sie nicht hat. Für sie ist es selbstverstandlich: nur alle zusammen heraus Oder keiner"{^BFA 10, 468-69).

Fatzer \s about revolution gone awry. Revolutionary zeal without adequate grounding in ideology and a over-dependence on charismatic leadership will lead to nowhere. Such a revolution can remain only an utopian vision so long as it lacks a fundamental, pragmatic grounding:

Die "Verankerung" des "/^fre/'-Entwurfs in der gegenwartigen Wirklichkeit war dagegen zu schwach, das utopische Element zu stark: Wirksame Anti'zipati'on ist nur moglich im konkreten Einsatz in dieser Wirklichkeit, in konkreter Anknüpfung an sie. '^FatzeF muBte daher mit einer gewissen Notwendigkeit Fragment bleiben. (Steinweg 210, italics in original)

The negative historical examples of revolutions driven by male collectives, such as the National Socialists in Germany and the Stalinists in the Soviet

Union may have been a primary reason behind Brechts abandonment of the

Fafeer project. Revolutions which fail to move beyond the initial enthusiastic spontaneity catalyzed by charismatic leaders rarely succeed. True revolution

145 must have deeper foundations In a broader context than a small leadership collective in order to succeed. Heiner Müller saw this material as "das Beste, was in diesem Jahrhundert geschrieben worden ist fur die Bühne und das

Beste von Brecht"{Gesammelte Irrtûmer 2, 28) because it represented for him a critique of the cynical utopianism of post-revolutionary regimes. The piece remained a fragment representing a call for further revolution, according to Muller:

das Fatzermaterial, Brechts groBten Entwurf und einzigen Text, in dem er sich, wie Goethe mit dem Fauststoff, die Freiheit des Experiments herausnahm, Freiheit vom Zwang zur Vollendung fur Eliten der Mit- und Nachwelt, zur Verpackung und Auslieferung an ein Publikum, an einen Markt. Ein inkommensurables Produkt, geschrieben zur Selbstverstandigung{Brecht-Jahrbuch 1980, 20).

As Brecht wrote, "Das Schwimmen gegen das Strom ist Torheit, aber es gehort Weisheit dazu, die Richtung des Stromes zu erkennen"{BFA 10, 528), but sometimes following the leader means hitting a dead end.

146 CONCLUSION

In his plays from the 1920's, Brecht incorporated the world and

experiences that were familiar to him as he undertook to shed light on the

foundations of his society and culture. In this early phase o f his career, he

turned to a world of instinct which he hoped would provide a viable

alternative to the received idealist value system (Bathrick 133). The young

Brecht, as has been shown in the previous chapters, sought to find a role for

his relationships with other men which extended beyond mere comradery. His

earliest attempts as inBaa!^n6 Dickichtfocvxseü on homoerotic relationships

as a trangressive alternative which would free the men involved from the

stultifying stasis represented by bourgeois marriage. After abandoning overt

homoeroticism, Brecht invested significant utopian potential in homosocial collectives as a possible site for a revolution which would lead to the overturn of the values which he had found so restrictive.

The end of the 1920's, however, represented for Brecht a significant shift in his outlook, as he began to adopt stronger and stronger Marxist political positions and witness the destructive power of male collectives led by

147 charismatic leaders, epitomized in the National Socialists. As David Bathrick

writes, this "very inversion of idealist sensibilities [as found in the early plays]

represses something vast and unspeakable" (133). The play Fatzer remained

a fragment because Brecht could not resolve his own attraction to the Baalian

charisma of the protagonist with the Inevitable dead end which must result

when revolutionary collectives cannot grow beyond their personality cults.

Brecht's revision ofMann ist Mann in 1931 transformed Galy Gay's

assumption into the military from a positive sacrifice of outdated individuality

into a negative, grotesque functionalizing and destructive event. Brecht even

tried to revive his earlier character Baal in his fragmentary learning playD er

base Baa! der asoziale by stripping the plot of its homoeroticism, but as we

shall see below withDieAusnahme und die Regeianû HerrPundia und sein

Knecht Matti, this project could not escape a rigid class criticism. Brecht also

later revisited the male collective and his earlier fascination with America in

Der aufhaitsame Aufsdeg des Arturo Ui, in an examination of the personality cult surrounding a leader. But ultimately, this parody joining the National

Socialists with the Chicago Mafia failed because of an overreliance on economic explanations without delving into the psychology of the attraction of charismatic leadership. As Brecht himself matured and developed a more

148 orthodox political stance in the face of difficult historical circumstances, he

abandoned his attempts to invest hope in male bonding as a locus for positive

change and he turned his attention to other models of revolutionary potential.

Brecht attempted portrayals of male-male relationships in his later

work, but they lacked the spontaneity and instinctiveness which marked the

earlier relationships he had portrayed. In the two I wish to examine here

briefly, DieAusnahme und die Regei^u6 Herr PunWa und sein Knecht MaW,

the focus is on employer-employee relationships, in which the position of

power held by the employer prevents him from attaining intimacy and

friendship from those who surround him, his employees. Brechts

characterizations of these employers elicits initial sympathy for their isolated

situation, but the plays eventually devolve into rigid class analysis of the

power relationship between employer and employee. By investigating

employer and employee relationships, Brecht hoped to reveal one of the

primary relationships between men in the modem capitalist economy. These

relations also replicate many of the structures of master/servant relationships

of feudal times, but employment differs in being at least nominally a voluntary relationship entered into for the mutual benefit of both parties. But, of course, it is also a power relationship, as are all relationships in the capitalist economy. Obviously, the employer exercises power because he controls the employee's ability to survive financially in the marketplace. But

149 the employer, as a businessperson, also requires the cooperation of his

employees for the continued success of his business. As Jan Knopf writes,

paraphrasing Hegel, the master, "der sich selbstandig wahnt, ist

unselbstandig, weil er nur von und durch die Art)eit des Knechts leben kann"

(218). The servant, who is actually responsible for the production of those things which the master then enjoys, stands between the master and the object of his enjoyment: "Ebenso bezieht sich der Herr mittelbar durch den

Knecht auf das Ding" (Hegel 147). Hence, the servant exercises control, mediation over the master's experience of the world itself, a situation which, as we shall see, leads the master (employer) to feelings of intense fear as in

Die Ausnahme and even in PuntHa. Attempts to establish homosocial comradery fail miserably, then, because of the unequal power positions of the men involved. The men who had bonded in the plays from the 1920's were all of the same class, with the single exceptionDickicht of In Dickicht, however, it was only by laying aside his privilege and status that Shlink was able to establish contact with George Garga. By the 1930's, Brecht was no longer able to conceive of an instinctual existence outside of civilization and class identity which would permit such homosocial bonding to take place. Instead, his attempts to investigate other models of male-male relationships failed due to the class distinctions inherent to them from the beginning.

150 The Merchant, the employer DieIn Ausnahme und die Regef, is the victim of self-imposed paranoia and isolation arising out of his role as employer and businessman. The managerial relationship alienates the employer from his own humanity and the humanity of his employees. The

Merchant creates his success using the skills of another (the Guide) and literally on the back of a second employee (the Coolie). Nonetheless, the

Merchant counts "die von [dem Kuli] mit auBerster Rücksichtsiosigkeit erpreBte Leistung als eigene Leistung und als Résultat eigener Stârke"

(Krabiel 244). His level of economic success is dependent on his ability to manage the talents of his workers to his own benefit. The hierarchical system of relations between employer and employee in the capitalist system necessitate a dehumanization of both parties for the unhindered path to success. The Merchant, who is in the business of acquiring rights to exploit land for oil, realizes that he must exploit everything and everyone around him, including himself:

So überwindet der Mensch Die Wüste und den reiBenden FluB Und überwindet sich selbst, den Menschen Und gewinnt das 01, das gebraucht wird. (^BFA 3, 247)

^ Written between 1930 and 1932, with some additional work done in 1934-36. First published inInternationale Uteratur. Deutsche Blatter \n Moscow in 1937 and in a revised version in theGesammelte Mferfe (Malik, 1938). First performed, in Hebrew, in Givat Chaim, Palestine.

151 The Merchant's self-conception and entire experience of the world is informed

b y his economic role as employer/businessman, which he sees as the

"natural" order of things, as created by God:

Der kranke Mann stirbt und der starke Mann ficht Und das ist gut so. Dem Starken wird geholfen, dem Schwachen hilft man nicht Und das ist gut so. La6 fallen, was fâllt, gib ihm noch einen Tritt Denn das ist gut so. Es setzt sich zum Essen, wer den Sieg sich erstritt Das ist gut so. Und der Koch nach der Schlacht zahit die Toten nicht mit Und er tut gut so. Und der Gott der Dinge, wie sie sind, schuf Herr und Knecht! Und das was gut so. {.BFA 3, 248)

Knowing this about the Merchant, it becomes clear that all of his actions, even his weak attempt at creating a homosocial alliance with the Guide, are informed by his static and rigid concept of class relations, which he perceives to be necessary in order to achieve success in the world.

The hierarchical relations between the Merchant, the Guide and the

Coolie are maintained until they reach Han, the last station of "civilization."

This state of civilization is equated withOrdnung, represented by the police:

D er Ka ufm a nn [...] Was kommt jetzt? D ie PouziSTEN Jetzt, Herr, kommt die menschenleere Wüste Jahi. D er Ka ufm a nn Kann man da eine Polizeieskorte bekommen? D ie Po l iz is t e n im Weitergehen: Nein, Herr, wir sind die letzte Polizeistreife, die Sie sehen werden,{BFA Herr. 3, 239)

152 Han thus represents the threshold between the established order, guaranteed

by police, and an unknown environment in which established norms could

and probably would be challenged.

The Merchant's actions in this liminal zone are driven by a fear of the

unknown which lies before him and the potential threat that this may pose to

his position as unchallenged boss. Without the force of law and order behind

him, the capitalist Merchant finds his status threatened and thus, as Brecht

wrote in his "Anmerkungen" of 1936,

unablassig den Klassenkampf betreibt, auch da, wo die hervorbringende Klasse zu groBen Teilen noch nicht kampft. Die aneignende Klasse handelt unter alien Umstanden so, wie es die Erwartung des Widerstandes der hervorbringenden Klasse ihr befiehlt. (A54 24, 109)

The Merchant's attempt to reach out to the Guide and create an alliance is, as

we shall see, always informed by his class position and a desire to counter

resistance from those under his charge. The Guide, who has performed his

job, including giving orders to the Coolie, well up until Han, represents an

educated, liberal class between the Merchant and the Coolie. But the Guide's

liberal sensibilities lead him to couch his orders in politeness: "Bemühe dich,

rascher zu laufen" 3, 238). The Guide is already breaking the strict

hierarchy of employer-middle management-lackey by showing that his

sympathies lie with the Coolie. It is also a recognition on the part of the Guide that the group relies on the Coolie for the success of their journey.

153 The Merchant, isolated and paranoid as he is, finds that in this liminal

situation he must do what he can to restore the hierarchical structure of the

group and thus makes a friendly overture to the Guide. The Merchant tries to

overcome class differences and make the Guide his ally by offering him a cigarette, a sign of friendship, but also a phallic symbol. The cigarette, like the cigar so favored by Brecht, "marks masculinity as both the site of reified

pleasure and the site where the potential for revolutionary politics resides"

(Case 164). He invites the Guide to sit with him and enjoy "[ujnser Tabak" because "[sjolch eine Reise bringt zwei Leute einander menschlich naher"

{BFA 3, 240). There is an underlying tension, possibly sexual, between the two (indicated by the Guide's discomfort at the Merchant's friendliness), which the Merchant hopes to bridge by offering an alliance against the Coolie, whom together they can exploit for their mutual benefit. The homosocial bond which the Merchant attempts to establish with the Guide fails because it is based on his desire for (even more) stability in his business, which he can then exploit to his further profit. But this attempt to reach out to the Guide in a supposedly humane manner is rebuffed: "Allés in allem beunruhigt mich dieses freundliche Verhalten des Kaufmanns sehr"{BFA 3, 239). As we shall see with Puntila later in this chapter, this offer of humanity is always made within the context of a different reality. The Guide, like Matti, rebuffs the offer because he can see beyond the immediate moment and recognize the

154 context in which the offer is being made, that this is "eine durch die

Umstande gegebene, wohl auch kurzbefristete, sozusagen taktische

Freundlichkeit"{BFA 3, 256). When the Guide first refuses his offer, the

Merchant then tries to appeal to a presumed sense of superiority in the

Guide: "Das sind Unterschiede, auf denen die Welt aufgebaut ist. Aber

rauchen konnen wir zusammen. Nein?E rta c h t Das gefallt mir an dir. Es ist

auch eine Art Würde"{BFA 3, 240). The Merchant would like to see the

person in the middle, in between two worlds, so to speak, come to his side,

because he "prefers to think of the Guide as part of himself, superior to the

Coolie in intelligence and knowledge and carrying out managerial functions"

(Brown 125). But the Merchant is so reified Into his own status as employer, exploiter and businessman that his weak attempts at reaching out to others are rebuffed. Brecht does not challenge the Merchant's rigid class conceptions by attempting to reform them—instead, this play has the pedagogical goal of encouraging the audience to overthrow the entire class system which allows men like Puntila to retain their power. The Merchant's rigidity and paranoia leads him to kill the Coolie just as he makes the apparently humanitarian offer of water, a final irrational act which destroys the very commercial success the Merchant thrives on. As Knopf says,Obwoh! doch unter diesen extra men Voraussetzungen anzunehmen ware, daB Kaufmann und KuH am

Ende zusammenhalten—von Mensch zu Mensch—, setzt sich der Kampf,

155 gemeint als Klassenkampf, auch in der Wüste fort' (116, italics in original).

Even in the most extreme circumstances, class differences continue to play

their role, even if they prevent rational decisions and behavior. In the end,

then, Brecht could no longer conceive of homosocial relationships as long as

they might possibly be tainted with the (sometimes hidden) politics of class

relations.

In his later play Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Mad^, Brecht tried to create a character in Puntila who possessed, at least while inebriated, the vitality of a Baal and the charisma of a Fatzer. This play, although written during Brecht's Finnish exile, was first performed in Germany in the context of the 1949 land reform in the eastern zone. This play is given a comic structure in which the audience would expect that the class differences would be overcome on an individual level. But ultimately it is a parody (Berckmann

249), because we are instead shown that class difference is so inherent to capitalist society that it can be overcome only on a systemic level rather than on an individual level. The comic revelation or demasking is thus not performed on the stage, but only in the minds of the audience, who, for the play to be successful in its political aim, need to side with Matti and not with the more vital Puntila. In other words, although we may initially interpret

- Written in the summer of 1940 in Finland, together with Hella Wuoiijoki and based on her Sahanpuruprinsessa. First performed in Zürich in 1948 and published in the tenth volume of Versuche'xn 1950.

156 Matti's giving up on Puntila and his inability to change as defeat. Math's self-

assured perspective never changes through the play and neither does that of

Puntila—both men are static representatives of their classes and their

position. Puntila's drunken attempts at establishing a bond with his servant

Matti, even to the point of offering his daughter in marriage, must in the end

be judged within the context of the power relationship which already exists

between the two.

Puntila remains static as a function of his role as master, for it is to his

benefit that things remain the same, because change would mean an end to

his privileged status as landowner. Matti, however, is also monolithic,

relentless in his drive for change, but he knows that this change cannot

happen within the play's given context (Heeg 149). The end of the play is already a given fact at its beginning when Matti announces his resignation already in the first scene{BFA 6, 287) and the theme of master-servant relations appears in each scene like an intricate dance of "Such- und

AbstoBbewegungen zweier Manner namlich, die voneinander nicht lassen konnen, weil jeder das alter ego des andem ist" (Heeg 149). Puntila tries to overcome the isolation arising out of his position as landowner by engaging in those acts which he believes define male bonding: drinking, intimate conversations and the exchange of women to establish a homosocial triad.

157 The rules of an older generation which allowed for an intimacy between

master and servant while retaining the essential class difference no longer

apply:

Mir haben sie einen harten Kragen umgelegt, daB ich mir schon zwei Kinne kaputtgerieben hab. Es paBt sich nicht, daB der Papa pflügt; es paBt sich nicht, daB der Papa die Madchen kitzelt; es paBt sich nicht, daB der Papa mit den Arbeitem trinkt! Aber jetzt paBt es mir nicht mehr, daB es sich nicht paBt [...]i^BFA 6, 291)

As Walter Sokel writes, ”[d]er betrunkene Puntila sehnt sich nach Matt's

Freundschaft, aber seine weit geoffheten Arme werden von dem

realistischen Schoffor, der weiB, daB die Verhaltnisse starker sind als Puntilas

Traum, ignoriert" C'Split Characters" 132). Matt's politcal self-awareness

prevents him from falling into the servant-friend role that Puntia wants him to possess:

Pu n t il a M att, bist du mein Freund? M a t t i Nein Pu n t il a Ich dank dir. Ich wuBt es. {BFA 6, 288-89)

The attempts at reaching out to Matt are always marked by difference, that is, Puntila is always approaching Matt as if he were something strange. In the opening scene, he declares M att his friend only "Ergehtumafter ihn herum, ihn wie ein fremdes Tier betrachtend' (stage direction in italics,BFA

6 , 288). Puntila is unable to overcome the class difference even as he becomes more and more desperate for Matt's friendship.

158 Brecht recognized that Puntila's air of vitality and charisma would have

certain charms for the audience (and critics), hence he felt it necessary to

warn in his Notizen über die Züricher ErstaufWhrung a putative

fascination with Puntila, "ein gewisses vorzeitliches Tier"{BFA 6, 285):

Entscheidend ist die Ausformung des Klassenantagonismus zwischen Puntila und Matti. Die Rolle des Matti muB so besetzt werden, daB eine echte Balance zustande kommt, d.h. daB die geistige Überiegenheit bei ihm legt. Der Darsteller des Puntila muB sich hüten, in den Trunkenheitsszenen das Publikum durch Vitalitat Oder Charme so mitzureiBen, daB ihm nicht mehr die Freiheit bleibt, ihn zu kritisieren.{BFA 24, 301-2)

Indeed, some early critics rejoiced in what they saw as the Baal-like nature of

Puntila: Fritz Martini said the piece was marked with "Freude an der anarchisch-elementaren Natur" (273) and Hans Egon Holthusen called Puntila a "genialischen Dionysiker" (105). But this "congenial," "more humane" character of Puntila is not like Baal's at all. Baal's vitality was asocial, that is, without regard to the social (and economic) consequences o f his actions.

Puntila's vitality is mediated through a drug (alcohol), which allows him to put on a mask of "niedrig sein," of lowered or removed class boundaries. Puntila would like us to believe that self-delusion extends to a belief that he is sick, that he suffers from "Anfalle von totaler, sinnloser Nüchtemheit" in which he

"elnfach zum Tier herabsinke"{BFA 6, 289). This "freundliches, menschliches

Antlitz" may be before us in Puntila, but this changes "nichts an der Realitat der Unterdruckung und Ausbeutung" (Knopf 221). Even at his most drunken

159 moments, Puntila is unable to forget that he is "der Gutsbesitzer Puntila aus

Lammi und ein ehrlicher Mensch, ich hab 90 Kiihe"{BFA 6, 288). But like the

Merchant in DieAusnahme, this existence as landowner has kept Puntila from developing fully human relationships with those around him, because the economic reality of class relationships remains a constant presence. Jost

Hermand would like to engender sympathy for Puntila, whom he sees as "ein von seiner natürlichen Güte entfremdeter' Mensch, der durch die gesellschaftliche Rolle eines GroSgrundbesitzers zu einem herrischen und ausbeuterischen Gebaren gezwungen wird." His true personality, Hermand argues, only comes to the front when he is drunk (296), that is, his role as landowner is only a mask which keeps Puntila constrained. Brecht, however, argues that it is the alcohol which masks Puntila's true nature as exploitative landowner and gives him an attractive "vitality" of which we need be wary;

Steckel spielte den Puntila in Zürich, bevor er ihn in Berlin spielte. In Zürich spielte er ihn fast ohne Maske, und es entstand bei den meisten Zuschauern der Eindruck eines sympathischen Menschens mit einigen üblen Anwandlungen im Zustand der Nüchtemheit, welche den Charakter des Katzenjammers annahm, so daB auch diese Anwandlungen entschuldigt schienen. In Berlin, belehrt durch diese Wirkung, wahlte er einen ekelhaft geformten Kahlkopf und schminkte sich

160 verlebte und niedrig aussehende Züge. Erst jetzt wirkte sein Scharm in der Trunkenheit gefêhriich, wurden seine geselligen Annaherungen zu denen des Krokodils. Nahezu alle Aufführungen des Stücks in Deutschland, vor und nach der Berliner Aufführung, litten an dem Irrtum, der auch in Zurich begangen wurde.{BFA 24, 310)^

Thus only with the introduction of a grotesque mask into the production

praxis of this piece were Brecht's intentions fulfilled.

As in DieAusnahme und die Regei, dass relations once again prevent

the establishment of true homosocial bonds. As Walter Sokel writes,"des

Herrn Wunsch nach menschlicher Gemeinschaft und bedingungsloser Uebe

[ist] praktisch undurchfuhrbar und rein romantischer und phantastischer

Natur" (132). Brecht ultimately rejected the charisma and vitality in which he

had so vested his earlier characters, because in his later view, these were

used to lure the unwary into disadvantageous relationships. Puntila's actions

in this play may be a result of a total isolation due to his class position, but

they also reflect a grand scheme of self-preservation against the threat posed

by his daughter's marriage to the Attaché. The drunkenness, the proposals to

the women of Kurgela and especially the offering of Eva to his chauffeur Matti

are all desperate attempts to stop the event which would necessitate the end

of his independence as a landowner. In the end, however, nothing has changed.

' Originally published in Theaterarbeii in 1951 concerning the original productions o fPunliia.

161 Homosocial relationships, and human relationships in general, were at this point for Brecht no longer possible as long as class differences persisted, as there was always an economic interest present to dictate the necessities of attitude and action. Neither master nor servant is free to act counter to his financial interests for long without these posing a serious threat to continued survival within the system. The only possibility for change, then, is for a change of the system itself, because otherwise people are just "fast ein

Mensch"{BFA 6, 370), they cannot relate to each other in a fully human manner. Puntila had become obsessed with overcoming the increasing isolation caused by his position as landowner and employer, but he was met with a constant level of opposition from the object of his desire, Matti. At one point this desire is expressed in physical terms when he declares: "Ich krieg

Durst, wenn ich dich nur anschau," but this is immediately followed by

"Wieviel geb ich dir monatlich?"{BFA 6, 365). When Puntila's efforts to create a homosocial bond with Matti fail on the basis of drinking and conversation,

Puntila is reduced to making financial offers. Puntila even tries to invoke the nature-civilization dialectic which had informed Brecht's plays in the 1920's, but which by the time this play was written had become tainted with associations with fascism. In the penultimate scene of the play, Puntila and

162 Matti climb the Hatelmaberg and look out over the woods owned by Puntila.

In rhapsodic prose, Puntila praises the beauty of the woods as a pure state of

nature where he and Matti can escape their differences and become one:

Wir steigen, Matti, es geht aufwarts. Die Gebaude und Baulichkeiten aus Menschenhand bleiben zurück, und wir dringen in die pure Natur ein, die einen kahleren Ausdruck annimmt. LaB jetzt alle deine kleinen Bekümmeiiichkeiten zurück und widme dich dem gewaltigen Eindruck, Matti.{^BFA 6, 367)

What had once been for Brecht a place of liberation and freedom from class- based relationships has now become a place of which Puntila can say "da drüben sind melne"{^BFA 6, 368) and demand that everyone join him in singing a patriotic hymn:

Pu n tila O Tavastland, gesegnetes! Mit selnem Himmel, seinen Seen, seinem Volk und seinen WaldemIZu MaW: Saq, daB dir das Herz aufgeht, wenn du das siehsti M a t t i Das Herz geht mir auf, wenn ich Ihre Walder seh, Herr Puntila! {BFA 6, 369)

With this, the utopian potential Brecht had previously invested in homosociality became the object of criticism itself, intertwined with nationalism and unable to escape the realities of class differences. In the end, then, he could no longer find any redemption for gender-based bonding in his eyes.

In conclusion, much of Brecht scholarship has until now tried to dismiss the homoeroticism of Brecht's earliest plays and the enthusiasm for the male collective in the later plays of the 1920's as the transgressions of

163 youth which Brecht eventually overcame. Feminist scholarship of Brecht has tended to focus on the portrayal of women in his works as objects and on the sometimes problematic nature of his collaboration with female writers. This dissertation has sought to restore to the discussion the utopian potential which the early Brecht vested in patterns of male bonding, especially how

Brecht associated them with a "natural" existence separate from the constrictions of conventional society. Later, Brecht initially sought to place hope in the male collective as the most fruitful locus for proletarian revolution, but the dynamics of a group centered around a charismatic leader, as in F atzer, ultimately led to failure or to an undesirable type of revolution epitomized by the fascists. Even though the later Brecht, as seen hereD ie in

Ausnahme^vA Punbia, eventually abandoned male-male relationships as a positive pattern and could only see them as reified in class and nationalist politics, a recognition of their importance to his early work will allow Brecht scholarship to gain further insight into the fundamental shift which marked

Brecht^s work and thought in the late 1920's.

164 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adler, Meinhard. Brecht im Spiel der technischen Z eit Naturwissenschaftiiche, psychoiogische und wissensdiafts-theoretische Kategonen im Werk Bertolt Brechts. Bn Beitrag zur Uteraturpsychologie. Uteratur und Psychologie. Berlin: Nolte, 1976.

Adorno, Theodor W. "Mahagonny." Gesammelte Schriften. Vol. 17. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1982. 114-22.

Asman, Carrie. "Die Rückbindung des Zeichens an den Korper: Benjamins Begriff der Geste in der Vermitdung von Brecht und Kafka."D as Brecht-Jahrbuch I The Brecht Yearbook (1993): 104-19.

Aspetsberger, Friedbert.'amolt bronnen:'Biographie. Uteratur in der Geschichte/Geschichte in der Uteratur 34. Wien: Bohlau, 1995.

Badinger, Elisabeth. XY. On Masculine Identity. Trans. Lydia Davis. European Perspectives. New York: Columbia UP, 1995.

Bahr, Gisela. "'Und niemals wird eine Verstandigung sein':Im DIckichtder Stadte."Brechts Dramen: Neue Interpretab'onen. Ed. Walter Hinderer. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1984. 67-88.

Bathrick, David. "Max Schmeling on the Canvas: Boxing as an Icon of Weimar Culture." New German Critique (Fall 1990): 113-36.

Baumgart, Reinhard. Selbsivergessenheit. Drei Wegezum Werk: Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, Bertolt Brecht München: Carl Manser, 1989.

Baureithel, Ulrike. "Schicksal nur gegen Beweis. Bertolt Brecht und Arnolt Bronnen im literarischen Feld der Weimarer Republik:M ann is t M ann und Ostpolzug." Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956). Ed. Walter Delabar and Jorg Doring. Memoria 1. Berlin: Weidler, 1998. 89-111.

165 Benjamin, Walter. Chartes Baudelaire: En Lynker im Zeitaiter des Hochi(apitatismus Ed. Rolf Tiedemann. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1969.

— . Versuche üt)er Brecht Ed. Rolf Tiedemann. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1978.

Berckmann, Edward M. "Comedy and Parody of Comedy in Brecht'sP u n b ta" Essays in Uterature 1 (1974): 248-60.

Berg, Günter. '"Die Manner boxen im Salatgarten.' Brecht und der Faustkampf. Das Brecht-Jahrbuch / The Brecht Yeartxx>klS (1993): 1- 23.

Berger-ProBdorf, Tamara. Die Funkdon des HeiisarmeegeisOichen in den Dramen Brechts. American University Studies, Series I, 97. New York: Lang, 1993.

Best, Otto F.Bertolt Brecht: W eisheit und Übedeben. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1982.

Block, Richard. "Baal Dancing: The Unsettling Position of Baal in Brecht's Theater of the New."German Quarterly (1995): 117-30.

Blumberg, Phillip. "The Crisis of Association: Brecht'sBaal." Yate/TheabeS (1974-75): 2, 45-50.

Bourdieu, Pierre.La dominab'on masculine. Paris: Seuil, 1998.

Brecht, Bertolt.W erke. GroBe kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe. 30 Bde. Berlin und Weimar: Aufbau; Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1988.

Bronnen, Arnolt. Tage m it Bertoit Brecht. Geschichte einer unvoHendeten Freundschaft. Wien: Kurt Desch, 1960.

Bronsen, David. '"Die Verhaltnisse dieses Planeten' in Brechts frühen Stücken." Festschrift fü r Bernhard Biume. Aufsatze zur deutschen und europaischen Uteratur. Ed. Egon Schwarz et al. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1967. 348-66.

166 Brown, H[ilda] M[eldrum]. "Between Plagiarism and Parody: The Function of the Rimbaud Quotations in Brecht'sIm Dickicht der Stadte." Modem Language Review ^7. (1987): 662-74.

Brown, Hilda Meldrum. Leitmotiv and Drama. Wagner, Brecht and the Limits of'Epic'Theatre. Oxford: Clarendon, 1991.

Brown, Russell E.Intim acy and Intim idation: Three Essays on Bertoit B redit Stuttgart: Steiner, 1990.

Buhl, Barbara. Biider der Zukunft: Traum und Pian. Utopie im Werk Bertoit B rechts. Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 1988.

Busch, Walter. "Manner und Helden bei Ernst Jünger und Bertolt Brecht: Zwei stilistische Modelle."Quademi di Lingue e Letterature 18 (1993): 191- 209.

Calabro, Tony. Bertoit Brecht's A rt o f Dissembiance. Wakefield, New Hampshire: Longwood Academic, 1990.

Cardullo, Bert. "A World in Transition: A Study of Brecht'sMann ist Mann." Germanic R e v ie w(1984): 90-96.

Case, Sue-Ellen. "Brecht and Women: Homosexuality and the Mother."D as Brecht-Jahrbuch/The Brecht Yearbook 12 (1983): 62-74.

— . '"Wer raucht, sieht kaltbiütig aus.' Brecht, Müller and Cigars." Theater der Zeit Arbeitsbuch / The Brecht Yearbook (1998): 163-69,

Claas, Herbert. Die poiibsche Asthebk Bertoit Brechts vom Baaizum Caesar. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1977.

Connell. R. W. Mascuiinib'es. Berkeley: U California P, 1995.

Cotterill, Rowland. "In defence of Mahagonny."Culture and Society in the Weimar Republic. Ed. Keith Bullivant. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1977. 190-200.

Daphinoff, Dimiter. "Baal, die frühe Lyrik und Hanns Johst. Noch einmal über die literarischen Anfênge Bertolt Brechts."Jahrbuch derdeutschen SchiHer-Geseiischaftl9 (1975): 324-43.

167 Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari.Anti-Oedipus. Capitaiism and Schizophrenia. Trans. Robert Hurley et al. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1983.

Dollimore, Jonathan. Sexual Dissidence. Augustine to Wiide, Freud to F o u cau lt Oxford: Clarendon P, 1991.

Ekmann, Bjprn. "Bert Brecht, vom 'Baal' aus gesehen."Odjis Litterarum lQ (1965): 3-18.

Esslin, Martin. Brecht: A Choice o f EvHs. 1959. 4^ Edition. London: Methuen, 1984.

Ewen, Frederic.Bertolt Brecht. His Life, His A rt and His Times. New York: Citadel-Carol, 1967.

Fenn, Bernard. Characterisation o f Women in the Piays o f Bertoit Brecht European University Studies, Series I, 383. Frankfurt/Main: Lang, 1982.

Fraunhofer, Hedwig. "Fear of the Feminine: (Homo)Sexuality and Economics in Brecht'sJungie o f Cities." Women in German Yeartxx>kl5 (2000): 117-35.

Frenken, Herbert. "'Konigin' und 'Hore.' Antipoden der Weiblichneit in Brechts früher Lyrik." Derjunge Brecht. Aspekte seines Denkens und S chaffen s. Ed. Helmut Gier and Jürgen Hillesheim. Würzburg: Konigshausen & Neumann, 1996. 82-102.

Frey, Daniel. Brecht un poète politique. Les images, symix^ies e t métaphores dans i'œ uvre de Bertoit Brecht Lausanne: L'Age d'Homme, 1987.

Frühwald, Wolfgang. "Eine Mpritat vom Ende des Individuums: Das TheaterstückBaai." Brechts Dramen: Neue Interpretationen. Ed. Walter Hinderer. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1984. 33-47.

Fuegi, John.Brecht and Company: Sex, Politics and the Making o f the Modern D ram a. New York: Grove P, 1994.

168 Girshausen, Théo. "Baal, Fatzer—und Fondrak. Die Figur des Asozlalen bei Brecht und Müller."Dramaùk der DDR. Ed. Ulrich Profitlich. suhrkamp taschenbuch materialen 2072. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1987. 327- 43.

Goldstein, Bluma. "Bertolt Brecht'sBaah A Crisis in Poetic Existence," Festschrift fu r Bernhard Blume. Aufsatze zu r deutschen und europaischen Uteratur. Ed. Egon Schwarz et al. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1967.

Grimm, Reinhold. "Alienation in Context: On the Theory and Practice of Brechban Theater."A Bertoit Brecht Reference Companion. Ed. Siegfried Mews. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood P, 1997. 35-46.

— . Brecht und Nietzsche Oder gestandnisse eines Dichters. Fûnf Essays und ein Bruchstück. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1979.

— . "Der katholische Einstein: Brechts Dramen- und Theatertheorie."B rechts Dramen: Neue Interpretationen. Ed. Walter Hinderer. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1984. 11-32.

Gunther, Vincent J. "Hofmannsthal und Brecht. Bemerkungen zu Brechts Baai. " Untersuchungen zur Uteratur a is Geschichte. Festschrift für Benno von Wiese. Ed. Vincent J. Günther et al. Berlin: Schmidt, 1973. 505-13.

Hahn, Hans-Joachim. "From Individual to Idealogy: The Crisis of Identity at the Turn of the Century."New German Studies 17 (1992/93): 1-27.

Hake, Sabine. "Chaplin Reception in Weimar Germany."New German Critique 51 (Fall 1990): 87-111.

Hartmann, Hans A. "Von der Freundlichkeit der Weiten Oder Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Mutter. Der junge Brecht."B e rto it B rech t— Aspekte seines Werkes, Spuren seiner Wirkung. Ed. Helmut Koopmann and Theo Stammen. Schriften der Philosophischen Fakultaten der Universitat Augsburg 25. München: Vogel, 1994. 31-84.

Haus, Heinz-Uwe. "Brecht: Umwalzungen finden im Sackgassen statt. Gedanken zur Frage 'Brecht wohin?"'Das Brecht-Jahrbuch I The Brecht Yearbook IS (1991): 128-31.

169 Hayman, Ronald. Brecht: A Biography. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1983.

Hays, Michael. "Erasing History: Brecht and the Discourse of Modernism."D as Brecht-Jahrbuch I The Brecht Yearbook 17{1992): 134-45.

Heeg, Günther. "Herr und Knecht, Furcht und Arbeit, Mann und Weib: Einar Schleefs autobiographische Lektüre von Brechts Punbla."T h e ate r d e r Z eit Arbeitsbuch / The Brecht Yeartxx)k23 (1998): 147-54.

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich.Phanomenoiogie des Geistes. Ed. Johannes Hoffmeister. Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 1952.

Heidsieck, Arnold.Das Groteske und das Absurde im modernen Drama. Sprache und Uteratur 53. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1969.

Herhoffer, Astrid. "Brecht: an aesthetics of conviction?"Bertoit Brecht: Centenary Essays. Ed. Steve Giles and Rodney Uvingstone. German Monitor 41. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998. 211-26

Hermand, Jost. "Brecht. Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti."Die deutsche Komodie vom M ittefaiterzur Gegenwart Ed. Walter Hinck. Düsseldorf: Babel, 1977. 287-304.

— . "Zwischen Partei und Volk. Brechts utopischer Ort."Bertoit Brecht (1898- 1 9 5 6 ). Ed. Walter Delabar and Jorg Doring. Memoria 1. Berlin: Weidler, 1998. 379-85.

Hillesheim, Jürgen. "Geschictspessimismus und fatalistiche Vitalitat. Georg Büchners Dantons Tod' und Bertolt Brechts 'Baal' im Horizont der Philosophie Arthur Schopenhauers."Der junge Brecht. Aspekte xin es Denkens und Schaffens. Ed. Helmut Gier and Jürgen Hillesheim. Würzburg: Konigshausen & Neumann, 1996. 126-43.

Hilliker, Rebecca. "Brecht's GissArVision for Opera: Why the Schock of Recognition is more Powerful inThe Rise and Faii o f the City o f M ahagonny in The Three Penny Opera.” Text and Presentation. Ed. Karelisa Hartigan. The University of Florida Department of Classics Comparative Drama Conference Papers V III. Lanham, Maryland: University P of America, 1988. 77-92.

Holthusen, Hans Egon. Kritisches Verstehen. München: Piper, 1961.

170 lehl, Dominique, "Aspects du grotesque dans le theatre expressioniste et chez le jeune Brecht."Bertolt Brecht Actes du Colloque franco-allemand tenu en Sortonne (15-19 novembre 1988). Ed. Jean-Marie Valentin with Theo Buck. Contacts Series 1, 8. Bern: Lang, 1990. 85-96.

Irigaray, Luce, ye, tu, nous. Toward a Culture o f Difference. Trans. Alison Martin. New York: Routledge, 1993.

— . Thinking the Difference. R>r a Peaceful Revolution. Trans. Karin Montin. New York: Routledge, 1994.

— . This Sex Which Is Not One. Trans. Catherine Porter with Carolyn Burke. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1985.

Jager, Christian. "Penser Brecht. Zur Deutung Brechts bei Barthes, Althusser und Deleuze."Bertoit Brecht (1898-1956). Ed. Walter Delabar and Jorg Doring. Memoria 1. Berlin: Weidler, 1998. 325-40.

Jameson, Fredric.B re c h t a n d M ethod. London: Verso, 1998.

Jesse, Horst. "Die Uneinlosbarkeit des menschlichen Glücksverlangens am BeispielAufstieg und Fall der Stsdt Mahagonny.” Communications from the International Brecht Society 2A (1995): 69-78.

Jones, James W. "Homoerotik in drei Dramen der fruhren Weimarer Republik." Homosexuaiitat und Uteratur. Ed. Dietrich Molitor and Wolf Popp. Essen: Blaue Eule, 1986. 61-74.

Jonnes, Dennis. "Mothers, Men and the Crisis of Masculinity in Brecht's Wartime Drama." Cultural Science Reports o f Kagoshima University 2>2 (1990): 57-85.

Joost, Jorg-Wilhelm, Klaus-Detlef Müller and Michael Voges.Bertoit Brecht: Epoche—Werk—Wirkung. Ed. Klaus-Detlef Müller. Arbeitsbücher zur Literaturgeschichte. München: Beck. 1985.

Kaiser, Volker. "Der Phall Brecht: Eine andere Lektüre vom armen B.B."Das Brecht-Jahrbuch I The Brecht Yearbook 19(1994): 202-23.

Kane, Michael. Modern Men. Mapping Masculinity in English and German Literature 1880-1930. London: Cassell, 1999.

171 Kebir, Sabine. Bn akzeptabler Mann? Brecht und die Frauen. Koln: Pahl- Rugenstein, 1989.

Kellner, Douglas. "Brecht's Marxist Aesthetic."A Bertoit Brecht Reference Com panion Ed. Siegfried Mews. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood P, 1997. 281-95.

Kesting, Marianne. "Die Groteske vom Verlust der Identitat: Bertolt Brechts 'Mann 1st Mann."' Das deutsche Lustspiei. Zweiter Teii. Ed. Hans Steffen. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1969. 180-99.

King, Marna. '^Punbiaas a Site for Alienation and Despair." Communications from the Intem ationsai Brecht Society2S:1 (1999): 15-19.

Kirsch, Hans-Christian. In Baais W eit Kindheit und Jugend des Bert Brecht Augsburg: SoSo, 1993.

Klingmann, Ulrich. "Brecht, Wirklichkeit und Postmodeme: 'Nur belehrt von der Wirklichkeit, konnen wir die Wirklichkeit andem."Das Brecht- Jahrbuch j The Brecht Yearbook 19 (1994): 224-52.

Klis, Rita. "Brecht und Wedekind."Bertoit Brecht (1898-1956). Ed. Walter Delabar and Jorg Doring. Memoria 1. Berlin: Weidler, 1998. 59-88.

Klotz, Volker. Bertoit Brecht Versuch über das Werk. Bad Homburg: Gehlen, 1967.

Knopf, Jan. Brecht-Handbuch Theater. Eine Asthebk der WidersprOche. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1980.

Knust, Herbert. "First Comes the Belly, then Morality."A Bertoit Brecht Reference Companion. Ed. Siegfried Mews. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood P, 1997. 88-112.

Koopmann, Helmut. "Brechts Liebesgedichte."Der junge Brecht. Aspekte seines Denkens und Schaffens. Ed. Helmut Gier and Jürgen Hillesheim. Würzburg: Konigshausen & Neumann, 1996. 65-81.

Krabiel, Klaus-Dieter.Brechts LehrstOcke. Entstehung und Entwickiung eines S pieityps. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1993.

172 Kreutzer, Leo. "Ablaufe Oder Geschichten. Über das Romanwerk Alfred Doblins." A k zen te 14 (1967): 310-25.

Kruger, Loren. "Heterophony as Critique: Brecht, Muller and Radio Fatzer." Das Brecht-Jahiijuch/ The Brecht Yearùook 17 (1992): 235-50.

Kruschkova, Krassimira. "Die Erotik scheitert am Gestusdiskurs."Das Brecht- Jahrbuch ! The Brecht Yearbook 17 (1992): 52-61.

Leed, E.J.No Man's Land: Combat and Identity in Wodd W ar! Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1979.

Leeder, Karen. " B.B.s spat gedenkend': Reading Brecht in the 1980s and Das Brecht-Jahrbuch I The Brecht Yearbook!^{2000): 110- 26.

Lennox, Sara. "Women in Brecht's Works."New German Critique 14 (1978): 83-96.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. The Elementary Structures o f Kinship. Boston: Beacon P, 1969.

Ley, Ralph. Brecht as Thinker: Studies in Literary Marxism and Existentialism. Illinois Language and Culture Series 6. Normal, Illinois: Applied Literature P, 1979.

Lyon, James K. "Brecht'sM ann is t M ann and the Death of Tragedy in the 20^ Century." German QuarteriySl (1994): 513-20.

— . "Brecht's Women."Critical Essays on Bertolt Brecht ed. Siegfried Mews. Critical Essays on World Literature. Boston: Hall, 1989. 235-45.

Lyons, Charles. Bertolt Brecht: The Despair and the Polemic. Southern Illinois UP, 1968.

Lyons, Charles R. "Bertolt Brecht'sBaat. The Structure of Images."M odem Dramas {1905): 311-23.

Mahlke, Stefan. "Zwangslagen: Brechts Fragment Der Untergang des Egoisten Fatzer." Das Brecht-Jahrbuch/ The Brecht YearbooklO (1995): 175- 99.

173 Mairowitz, David Z. "Brecht's Women: A Synopsis / Proposal."Das Brecht- Jahrbuch / The Bæcht Yearbook \2 (1983): 207-10.

Martini, Fritz. "Soziale Thematik und Formwandlungen des Dramas." Episches Theater. Ed. Reinhold Grimm. Koln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1966.

Mayer, Hans. B re c h t Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1996.

Mennemeier, Franz Norbert.Modernes Deutsches Drama: Kritiken und Charakterisbken. 2"^ Ed. München: Fink, 1979.

Mews, Siegfried.Bertolt Brecht: Herr Puntffa und sein Knecht Matti. Grundlagen und Gedanken zum Verstandnis des Dramas. Frankfurt/Main: Diesterweg, 1975.

— . "Biblical Themes and Motifs in Brecht'sH err Punbia und sein Knecht M atti.” University o f Dayton Review 3 (Spring 1979): 53-64.

— . "Introduction." A Bertoit Bœ dit Reference Companion. Ed. Siegfried Mews. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood P, 1997.1-32.

— . "A Merry Departure from the Past? Master-Servant Relations in Bertolt Brecht, Martin Walser, and Volker Braun." New Critical Perspectives on Martin Walser. Ed. Frank Pilipp. Columbia: Camden House, 1994. 29- 46.

Mews, Siegfried and Raymond English. "Im amerikanischen Dickicht: Brecht und Zuckmayer {Pankraz erwacht—Im Dickicht der Stadte)." Cad Zuckmayer VS. Ein Jahrbuch. Ed. Barbara Glauert et al. Frankfurt/Main: Fischer, 1978. 181-207.

Mllfull, John. From Baai to Keuner: The "Second Opb'mism" o f Bertoit Brecht Australisch-Neuseelandische Studien zur Deutschen Sprache und Uteratur 5. Bern: Herbert Lang, 1974.

Mittenzwei, Werner.Brechts Verhaltnis zur Tradibon. Uteratur und Gesellschaft. Berlin: Akademie, 1972.

174 Müiler, Heiner.Gesammelte Irrtûm er. Interviews und Gesprache. Frankfurt/Main: Verlag der Autoren, 1986.

— . Gesammelte Irrtûm er 2. Interviews und Gesprache. Frankfurt/Main: Verlag der Autoren, 1990.

— . "Keuner± Fatzer." Brecht-Jahrbuch 1980. Ed. Reinhold Grimm und Jost Hermand. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1981. 14-21.

Müiler, Klaus-Detlef."Mann ist Mann.” Brechts Dramen. Neue Interpretationen. Ed. Walter Hinderer. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1984. 89- 105.

— . "Utopische Intention und Kritik der Utopien bei Brecht."Uteratur ist U topie. Ed. Gerd Ueding. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1978. 335-66.

Mumford, Meg. "'Dragging' Brecht's gestus onwards: a feminist challenge." Bertoit Brecht: Centenary Essays. Ed. Steve Giles and Rodney Livingstone. German Monitor 41. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998. 240-57.

Munk, Erika. "Brecht & Company: A Review Essay."Das Brecht-Jahrbuch j The Brecht Yearbook 2Q (1995): 239-46.

Münsterer, Hanns Otto.The Young Brecht Trans. Tom Kuhn and Karen J. Leeder. Grig. publ. asBert Brecht: Ennnerungen aus den Jahren 1917- 2 2 . 1963. London: Libris, 1992.

Neumann, Gerhard. "Geschlechterrollen und Autorschaft. Brechts Konzept der lyrischen Konfiguration." Das Brecht-Jahrbuch i The Brecht Yeartxx)k 17 (1992): 100-23.

Nussbaum, Laureen. "The Evolution of the Feminine Principle in Brecht's Work: An Overview." >4Bertoit Brecht Reference Companion. Ed. Siegfried Mews. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood P, 1997. 296-318.

Parmalee, Patty Lee.Brecht's America, n.pl: Miami U, 1981.

Perels, Christoph. "Vom Rand der Stadt ins Dickicht der Stadte: Wege der deutschen GroBstadtliteratur zwischen Liliencron und Brecht."D ie Stadt in der Uteratur. Ed. Cord Meckseper and Elisabeth Schraut. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1983. 57-80.

175 Poser, Hans. "Brechts 'Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti.' Dialektik zwischen Volksstück und Lehrstück."Theater und Gesellschaft. Das Volksstiick im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Ed. Jürgen Hein. Uteratur in der Gesellschaft 12. Düsseldorf: Bertelsmann, 1973. 187-200.

Qureshi, Qayum. Pessimimus und Fortschiittsglaube bei Bert Brecht. Uteratur und Leben 15. Koln: Bohlau, 1971.

Raddatz, Fritz J. "Ent-weiblichte Eschatologie. Bertolt Brechts revolutionarer Gegenmythos."Bertoit Brecht II 2"^ revised ed. text + kritik. München: text+kritik, 1973. 152-59

Rasch, William. "Theories of the Partisan: Die MaBnahmeanû the Politics of Revolution." Das Brecht-Jahrbuch ! The Brecht YearbooklO (2000): 330-43.

Reinelt, Janelle. "Rethinking Brecht: Deconstruction, Feminism, and the Politics of Form." Das Brecht Jahrbuch / The Brecht Yearbook 15 (1990): 99-110.

Roche, Mark W. "Comic reduction and comic negation in Brecht. Brecht: Centenary Essays. Ed. Steve Giles and Rodney Livingstone. German Monitor 41. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998. 121-32.

Schechter, Joel. "Brecht's Clowns:M an is M an after." The Cambridge Companion to Brecht. Ed. Peter Thomson and Glendyr Sacks. Cambridge Companions to Uterature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994. 68-78.

Schmid, Ulrich. "Verwischte Spuren im Griesle-Wildwest."Der junge Brecht. Aspekte seines Denkens und Schaffens. Ed. Helmut Gier and Jürgen Hillesheim. Würzburg: Konigshausen & Neumann, 1996. 31-43.

Schmidt, Dieter."Baal" und der junge Brecht. Eine textkriOsche Untersuchung zur Entwickiung des Frühwerks. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1966.

Schmidt, Dieter, ed.Bertoit Brecht. Baai. Der bose Baai der asoziaie. Texte, Varianten, Materiaiien. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1968.

Schnell, Axel."Virtuelle Revoiutionare"und "Verkommene Cotter. "Brechts "Baa!"und die Menschwerdung des Widersachers. Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 1993.

176 Schultz, Karla. "Utopias from Hell: Brecht's M a h a g o n n y Adorno's Treasure o f Indian Joe." Monatshefte fu r Deutschen Unterricht, Deutsche Sprache undUteratur9Q (1998): 306-16.

Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky.Between Men. English Uterature and Maie Homosociai Desire. 1985. Gender and Culture. New York: Columbia UP, 1992.

— . Epistemoiogy o f the Closet Berkeley: U California P, 1990.

— . Tendencies. Series Q. Durham, North Carolina: Duke UP, 1993.

Seliger, Helfried W.Das Amerikabiid Bertoit Brechts. Studien zur Germanistik, Anglistik und Komparatistik 21. Bonn: Bouvier, 1974.

Sjoberg, Alf. "Sensuality in Brecht."Slavic and East European Arts^ (1986): 61-67.

Silberman, Marc. "Editorial." Das Brecht-Jahrbuch / The Brecht Yearbook 16 (1991): ix-x.

— . "Vorwort/Preface."drive b: brecht 100 Theater der Zeit Arbeitsbuch/The Brecht Yearbook 23 (1998): 4-5.

Silhouette, Marielle.Le grotesque dans ie théâtre de Bertoit Brecht: Contribution à Tétude de ia gènese d'une dramaturgie expérimentale. Contacts/Theatrica 18. Berne: Peter Lang, 1996.

Sloterdijk, Peter.Critique o f Cynicai Reason. Trans. Michael Eldred. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1987.

Sokel, Walter. "Brecht's Concept of Character."Comparative Drama 5 (1971): 177-92.

— . "Brecht's Split Characters and His Sense of the Tragic."B rech t: A Collection o f Critical Essays. Ed. Peter Demetz. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1962. 127-37.

— . ^'lritro6u(X\OT\." An Anthology o f German Expressionist Drama: A Prelude to the Absurd. Anchor Bœks A365. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963.

177 Speidel, E. "Brecht's 'Puntila:' A Marxist Comedy."Modern Language Review 65 (1970): 319-32.

Speirs, Ronald. "Baal." Critical Essays on Bertoit Brecht Ed. Siegfried Mews. Criticial Essays on World Literature. Boston: Hall, 1989. 19-30.

Steer, W. A. J.'^Baat. A Key to Brecht's Communism."German Life and L e tte rs 19 (1965): 40-51.

Steinweg, Reiner.Das Lehrstück. Brechts Theorie einerpoiidsch-asdietischen E rziehung. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1972.

Streisand, Marianne. "Brecht und das 'Politische.'"Das Brecht-Jahrbuch / The Brecht YearbooklA (2000): 310-29.

Szondi, Peter.Theorie des modernen Dramas. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1959.

Tabbert-Jones, Gudrun.Die Funkdon der iiedhaften Eniage in den frühen Stücken Brechts: Baai, Trommein in der Nach t Im Dickicht der Stadte, Eduard II. von England und Mann ist Mann. Europaische Hochschulschriften Series I, 751. Frankfurt/Main: Lang, 1984.

Teschke, Holger. "Im Dickicht der Stadte das Gespenst aus der Zukunft."D a s Brecht-Jahrbuch f The Brecht Yearbook 1Ç>(1991): 132-39.

Valentin, Jean-Marie. "'Maître Puntila et son valet Matti': pièce populaire et grande comédie." Bertoit Brecht. Actes du Colloque franco-allemand tenu en Sortonne (15-19 novembre 1988). Ed. Jean-Marie Valentin with Theo Buck. Contacts Series 1, 8. Bern: Lang, 1990. 283-300.

Voigts, Manfred. Brechts Theaterkonzepdonen: Entstehung und Entfaitung bis 1 9 3 1 . München: Fink, 1977.

VoGkamp, Wilhelm. "Zwischen Utopie und Apokalypse. Die Diskussion utopischer GIQcksphantasien ind Brechts 'Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny.'" Drama und Theater im 20. Jahrhundert. Festschrift für W aiter Hinck. Ed. Hans Dietrich Irmscher and Werner Keller. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1983. 157-68.

178 Walker, John. "City Jungles and Expressionist Reifications from Brecht to Hammett." Twentieth Century Uterature: A Scholarly and Critical Jou rn al. 44 (1988): 119-33.

Weber, Carl. "Is there a use-value? Brecht on the American stage at the turn of the century."Bertolt Brecht: Centenary Essays. Ed. Steve Giles and Rodney Livingstone. German Monitor 41. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998. 227-39.

— . "The Prodigal Son and the Family In the Jungle. Notes on Brecht's Early Chicago Play and Its Contemporary American Staging." Das Brecht-Jahrbuch I The Brecht Yeartxx>k21 (1996): 125-40.

Wedel, Lite.Die RoUe der Frau tje i Bertolt Brecht Europaische Hochschulschriften, Deutsche Sprache und Uteratur 673. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang, 1983.

Wegmann, Thomas. "Marken, Medien und Management. Vorschlage zur Lektüre eines Klassikers."Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956). Ed. Walter Delabar and Jorg Doring. Memoria 1. Berlin: Weidler, 1998. 11-29.

Weisstein, Ulrich. "Von reitenden Boten und singenden Holzfallern: Bertolt Brecht und die Oper."Brechts Dramen: Neue Interpretab'onen. Ed. Walter Hinderer. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1984. 266-99.

White, Alfred D. "Plot and Narrative Elements In Brecht's Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti.'"Modern Language Review!^ (1981): 880-88.

Wilke, Judith.Brechts "Fatzer"-Fragment. Lektüren zum Verhaltnis von Dokument undKommentar. Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 1998.

Willett, John.Brecht In Context. Comparative Approaches. Rev. ed. London: Methuen, 1998.

Willett, John, et al. "A Brechtbuster Goes Bust: Scholarly Mistakes, Misquotes and Malpractices in John Fuegi's Brecht and Company!'. Das Brecht- Jahrbuch / The Brecht Yearbookltl (1995): 259-367.

Winnacker, Susanne. "Provisorien über Brechts Dickicht."Das Brecht- Jahrbuch I The Brecht Yearbook Yè (1993): 59-71.

179 Wirth, Andrzej. “Brecht'sF a tz e r. Experiments in Discourse Making."The Drama Review21'.^ (1978): 55-66.

Witt, Günter. "Das merkwurdige Verhaltnis des Bertolt Brecht zum Sport."D e r junge Brecht Aspekte seines Denkens und Schaffens. Ed. Helmut Gier and Jürgen Hillesheim. Würzburg: Konigshausen & Neumann, 1996. 200-25.

Wittkowski, Wolfgang. "Aktualitat der Historizitat: Bevormundung des Publikums in Brechts Bearbeitungen."Brechts Dramen: Neue Interpretationen. Ed. Walter Hinderer. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1984. 343- 68 .

Witzier, Ralf. "Bertolt Brechts 'Mann ist Mann' Oder von der Lust, die Identitat zu verlieren."Der junge Brecht: Aspekte seines Denkens und S chaffens. Ed. Helmut Gier and Jürgen Hillesheim. Würzburg: Konigshausen & Neumann, 1996. 144-65.

Wright, Elizabeth. Postmodern Brecht: A Re-Presentation. Critics of the Twentieth Century. London: Routledge, 1989.

Wyss, Monika. Brecht in der Kritik. Rezensionen aiier Brecht-UrauffCihrungen sowie ausgewahiter deutsch-und fremdsprachiger Premieren. Eine DokumentaOon. München: Kindler, 1977.

180