Literature in English 1914 to the Present- Ii
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 1914 TO THE PRESENT- II Code No. EN1009-II M. A. English (Previous) Semester-II DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION MAHARSHI DAYANAND UNIVERSITY, ROHTAK (A State University established under Haryana Act No. XXV of 1975) NAAC 'A+’ Grade Accredited University Copyright © 2003, Maharshi Dayanand University, ROHTAK All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means; electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the copyright holder. Maharshi Dayanand University ROHTAK – 124 001 Contents Unit-I BERTOLT BRECHT 1 Mother Courage Unit-II GRAHAM GREENE 47 The Heart of Matter Unit-III HAROLD PINTER 78 The Birthday Party Unit-IV TONI MORRISON 123 The Bluest Eye Unit-V PHILIP LARKIN 168 The Poetry of Departure Ambulance Going Going Show Saturday TED HUGHES The Jaguar Bayonet Charge Six Young Men Thrushes Bertolt Brecht 159 BERTOLT BRECHT Mother Courage 2160 Literature in English 1914 to the Present Unit-I Bertolt Brecht 1898-1956 His life and His Times Eugen Berthold Brecht was born in Augsburg on 10 February 1898. The end of the first world war was still not in sight and Brecht was not yet out of his teens when he was drafted into the army in 1917 and posted to an Augsbarg military hospital as a medical orderly. These were momentous times for Germany which was knee-deep into the war. The strain of the prolongation of the war and the effects of the blockade by the Allies had begun to be felt. There was a general discontent, especially among the working classes. Strikes broke out all over Germany in the January of 1918. In August, the initiative on the military front passed to the side of the Allies and the German collapse began. Mutinees spread throughout the armed forces. The Kaiser was forced to abdicate. A republican govt headed by the majority Socialists was elected on Nov. 10,1918, by a general assembly of workers’ and soldiers’ councils. It was a most propitious time for radical changes but the leaders of the German Social Democratic movement failed to take advantage of the opportunities. They made many mistakes and the advantage once again passed into the hands of the same elements that had plunged the country into the war. The infant Weimar Republic died a premature death. Hitler played a major role in the abortive Munich Brauhaus Putsch of 1923. These grave political upheavals adversely affected the German economy too. One and a half million workers were unemployed, and the German Mark stood grossly devalued. The middle classes found themselves suddenly expropriated by the state. At this moment, American capital also moved in to play its own mischief. Young Brecht did not remain unaffected by what was happening around him but his political understanding had not yet matured. Even as a school boy he was not much moved by the war euphoria that was sought to be created in the country. He once got himself into trouble over a pacifist essay in which he stated that only blockheads could think of death lightly. Whatever enthusiasm for war might have been left within him was forever crushed out in the horrifying experiences to which he was exposed as a medical orderly in the army. Brecht lost interest in medical science and felt attracted towards arts and literature. But there was as much confusion prevailing in the field of artistic activity as in the political field. World shaking changes were being planned through the medium of art. The futurists and dadaists dreamt that art would somehow bring about a new “ revolution” of man, with other than political or social weapons. Brecht was not attracted by these armchair revolutionaries. Nor did he like the pacifist strain and the rhetoric and pathos of the expressionist theatre. He demanded of the theatre a socially and culturally responsible repertoire and production. He felt that the foundations of the existing chaotic society had scarcely been touched by these various “isms”. The one question that he asked at this time was: what had these productions got to do with the tumultuous events taking place outside the theatre? When Brecht failed to get an answer to the problems that bothered him, he gradually began to turn towards Marxism. The reason why he did so is not far to seek : despairing eyes everywhere had started turning towards Russia, where the hopes of mankind rested upon the building of a new social order. Brecht began to write dramatic criticism and theory when he was drama critic for the newspaper Der Volkwille in Augsburg from 1919 to 1921, and continued to do so through the twenties but the main body of his theoretical writings began in 1931 in the form of explanatory notes to the opera, Rise and Fall of the Town of Mahagonny, wherein he announced, “Modern Theatre is epic theatre.” BertoltHarold PinterBrecht 1613 Brecht came to be recognized as a major theoretician of drama in the twentieth century. However, it needs to be acknowledged that he was not the first to use the term “epic theatre”. As early as 1929, Piscator used the term in his essay The Political Theatre. Epic Theatre discarded the closed, tightly knit “well made” play for a loose-linked, episodic and open structure. It is not very easy to describe his epic theatre because throughout his life his concept of it kept changing and developing. He never regarded either his plays or his theoretical statements as final. He believed in change. He considered all his efforts as experiments. Therefore, even when his concept of epic theatre was fully mapped out and constructed, it was to be subjected to many crucial alterations. Brecht first tabulated his ideas on epic theatre in his Notes on the opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahgonny (1930) where he set out the contrast beween the dramatic Aristotelian theatre and epic theatre in a list which is reproduced here: DRAMATIC THEATRE EPIC THEATRE plot narrative implicates the spectator in turns the spectator a stage situation into an observer, but wears down his capacity for arouses his capacity action for action provides him with sensations forces him to take decisions experience picture of the world the spectator is involved in he is made to face something something suggestion argument instinctive feelings are brought to the point of preserved recognition the spectator is in the thick the spectator stands of it, shares the experience outside, studies the human being is taken for the human being is the granted object of the inquiry he is unalterable he is alterable and able to alter eyes on the finish eyes on the course one scene makes another each scene for itself growth montage linear development in curves evolutionary determinism jumps man as a fixed point man as a process thought determines being social being determines thought feelingreason This table shows graphically the major shifts of emphasis which distniguish his “epic theatre”from the traditional dramatic theatre and brings out all those points which would give his epic theatre the “provocative effect” which he was so much after. Brecht was a rebel. A convenient starting point for a discussion of his epic theatre, therefore, would be to examine first what he rebelled against. The theatre as he found it in Germany around 1920 and as it still remains in many parts of the world to this day- a theatre in which fantastic productions of the classics alternate with empty photographic replicas of everyday life, whether in melodrama or drawing-room comedy, a theatre which oscillates between emotional uplift and afterdinner entertainment. John Willett is also of the view that The basis of Brecht’s theoretical writing is his strong dislike of the orthodox theatre, and especially of the ranting and pretentious German classical stage. Willett discovered remarkably close parallels between Brecht’s evolution and the history of his country. He also found that the distinctive clarity and detachment so characteristic of Brecht’s style enter his work with his 4162 Literature in English 1914 to the Present growing interest in Marxism. As stated earlier, Brecht began setting down his ideas on the theory of the theatre soon after he moved to Berlin in the mid 1920’s. His theory evolved out of constant practical experience with the stage and with living actors and directors. His basic ideas were already extensively developed at the end of the Twenties. They can be found in postscripts and notes to various plays of that period, prominent among them being The Threepenny Opera, Rise and Fall of the Town of Mahagonny, and A Man’s a Man. A study of his statements on theatre in a chronological order also shows that his own theory kept on developing and envolving as his understanding of the Marxist theory improved and his commitment deepened. He learnt to apply the theory to concrete social conditions more and more accurately as he gained experience as a dramatist. Brecht’s Ideology and his Theory of Drama The most obvious feature of Brecht’s theory is its reflection of a consistent social and political point of view. Where the other politically-minded artists show their attitude only in the message of their work, or even in public gestures to which their work bears no special relation, with Brecht it seems to go deeper into his writing, his theories and his productions, and to shape them down to the last small detail. The social element in Brecht’s work is among the most important elements. No creative writer’s politics were ever less independent of his work.