Brecht and Social Reality
"What happens all the time is not natural" (Brecht). DiscussTo understand Brecht's quote, we first need to understand Brecht's work. "Social reality is determined, 'fated' by a multiplicity of forces, beyond the power of realism or naturalism's narrow frame to represent. A new form was required, one able to depict forces of a larger scale, and this was to be what Brecht termed Epic theatre."Colin Counsell - Signs of Performance p81 Routledge 1996What Brecht was referring to in his quote came from one of his pieces titled The Exception and the Rule, written in 1930. But what does he mean by natural? Collins English Dictionary describes it as: "1. Of, according to, occurring in, provided by, nature. 2. Inborn. Collins Concise English Dictionary p332 Collins 1984Did Brecht mean that we do not live in a natural world, where we are 'normal' and unaffected? If this is what he means then the consensus would probably agree with him. There is probably no one in the world that lives a natural life, because of various reasons.The first of many is the social surroundings that someone could find themselves encompassed in. Whether it is in the city or country, or wherever, there
"Hegemony for Gramsci suggests the varied techniques by which ruling classes secure the consent of their subordinates to be ruled. Minorities and sub-cultures that try to live outside the rule of the leaders are considered 'rebellious' and are usually integrated into the dominant culture that the leaders usually control. Such things as social conditioning have an effect on us without our even noticing. Our behaviour is affected by the way that we are taught to behave by our parents and the people that we involve in our lives. But he is wrong also, as the human race as a culture has created its own natural world for it to settle down in. The natural world is not the world we associate with nature, and greenery and having to hunt for your own food, but the natural habitat which we humans inhabit, a world full of creature comforts, televisions and word processors which make writing essays so much easier. This comes from his ideas about individuals 'playing a part'. "Terry Eagleton - Ideology p13 Longman 1994It is little known that approximately seven percent of the population own around ninety three percent of the wealth. But would we do it if we weren't that we shouldn't? We will not find out until someone conducts an experiment involving a child that isn't taught the 'norms' of society's behaviour. Humans as a species cannot just sit down and relax, like most other life forms on this planet. These people were never chosen by the population to rule, at least not directly. We constantly need to be doing something, and it is possibly this attitude that creates our world as we know it. Someone who listens to music by Metallica will be segregated into a different grouping than someone who listens to Steps, for example. and that, in general, matters are what they appear to be.
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Acceptance Essays
