Bertolt Brecht's Dramatic Theory (Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture, 83) (Volume 83)

Should become the standard reference in English for understanding Brecht's difficult and seemingly contradictory statements...A book that will now be the definitive resource on this topic. Essential. CHOICE

John J. White's thorough, many-faceted account of the sources and evolution of Brecht's ideas and how he sought to realize them provides a wealth of astute analysis useful to theatrical practitioners, to teachers and scholars of literature, and, in part at least, to social scientists. GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW, 2006

White's presentation excels in close readings of strategically chosen texts in five chronologically arranged chapters....This is a solid volume with abundant explanatory footnotes, comprehensive bibliography, and detailed index. GERMAN QUARTERLY

Thanks to White's insights ... Brecht's fierce critical intelligence and the philosophical irony that modulates and redeems it strike the reader anew. GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW

Bertolt Brecht's Dramatic Theory is the first detailed study in English of Brecht's writings on the theatre to take into account the substantial new material first made available in the recent German edition of his collected works.... [A work] suggesting new possibilities for Brecht scholars and others interested in his works. GERMANIC NOTES AND REVIEWS

This is an encyclopaedic undertaking whose philological rigour marks the study as a major work of Germanistik. MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW

[A] nuanced, thorough, and stimulating investigation cum critical evaluation of Brecht's theorizing on theater.... MONATSHEFTE

Brecht was obliged to calibrate his statements for particular audiences and situations.... Temperamentally ... [he] was disposed to be poetically indirect rather than to strive for maximum transparency. John J. White deserves considerable credit both for taking on the challenge of analyzing Brecht's theory as a whole, and for doing so in a manner that never loses sight of those complexities. TEXT AND PRESENTATION