TTW9 Drama Critical Quotes

Christopher McCullough, title

the early version of the play’s title played off the pun ‘die ware Liebe’ - true love and the merchandise of love

Christopher McCullough, God’s moral precepts

‘The God’s abstract conceptions of goodness make inflexible moral demands on society’

Christopher McCullough, the Gods

The Gods are ludicrous figures (parodies of deus ex machina) to reveal their ‘moral flimsiness’

Chrisopher McCullough, character

'the verisimilitude of a psychologically consistent character is not Brecht’s concern’

Elizabeth Wright, oppression

Even though Shui Ta is immediately believed and Shen Te’s authority constantly questioned, Brecht is concerned with economic, rather than gendered oppression.

Bertold Brecht, episches Theater

The more that audiences participate emotionally in a play, the less they learn; the more there is to learn, the less enjoyment to be had.

Bertold Brecht, Verfremdung

Verfremdung als 'dem Vorgang oder dem Charakter das Selbverständliche, Bekannte, Einleuchtende zu nehmen und über ihr Staunen und Neuguirde zu erzuegen.’

Keith Dickson, ending

the ending leaves ‘the basic conflict between altruism and self-interest unresolved’

Keith Dickson, the Gods

the Gods ‘retire on a timely pink cloud to well-deserved oblivion’

Jans Kopf, art

Art ‘lays bare the systemic contradictions in an aesthetic manner’

Christian Kierchmayer, the epilogue

the epilogue contains elements both of the moral tradition (in that it searches for a moral) and the comic one (in that it apologises for the preceding drama).

Claudia Leeb, Austria’s self-identity

the play ‘challenges Austria’s chosen self-identity as victim of Nazi Germany and exposes the continuing proto-fascist elements’

Claudia Leeb, scandal

Bernhard was accused of being an ‘Übertriebungskünstler’

Fatima Naqui, setting

‘Heldenplatz stresses the simultaneity of the fictive stage and social world, of past and present’

Fatima Naqui, national discourse

‘family members mimic the national discourse, ignoring the Nazi era and fixating on the Austro-Hungarian empire’

Fatima Naqui, Schuster language

‘the Schusters are victims themselves who tend towards the absolute rhetoric of fascist ideology’

Fatima Naqui, victim and perputrators

‘categories of victim and perpetrators are continually rearranged’

Christine Klebuzinska, ‘good Jew’

‘Bernhard denies the public the ‘good Jew’ as an object of identification’

Patrick Siegmann, hatred

‘It is only through repetition that hatred acquires its tremendous power […] and thus solidifies into the personality’

Benjamin Heinrichs, language and identity

‘Als Juden haben sie das Recht der Opfer. Als Österreicher sprechen sie das Sprach der Tater’

Peter Yang, cross-border encounters

‘cross-border and cross-cultural encounters and information exchange allow unfamiliar perspectives on a familiar world’

Birgit Haas, genre

Loher’s plays represent a turn towards socially relevant drama and away from postdramatic formalism.

Birgit Haas, artificiality

‘Unschuld zielt darauf, die Fiktionalität des Dargestellten und die narrativen Mechanismen des Theaters zu demonstrieren’

Birgit Haas, chronology

‘den Zusammenbruch der Chronologie der Fabel, das Scheitern der Festellung des Faktischen.’

Birgit Haas, central theme play

‘die Frage nach dem Sinn des Lebens in der heutigen Welt.’

Birgit Haas, structure play

the structure of the play suspends causality and creates a failure of dramatic certainty

Dea Loher, genre

‘nicht Sozialreportage, sondern Tragödie.’

Katrin Seig, guilt

the preoccupation with guilt echoes the constant interrogation of the past necessitated by the Vergangenheitsbewältigungkultur