Reading list:
The
following are reactions to readings done in class to understand
the paradigm of fascism and the modes of resistance offered
to it historically. We hope the reader will find this shorthand
a useful guide to reference.
Louis
Althusser
Althusser,
Louis. 1969. "The 'Piccolo Teatro' Bertolazzi and Brecht."
In For Marx , Penguin Press (1965).
Spectatorship:
SSpectatorial
consciousness in Althusserian model:
- Enlist
spectator for an active and living critique
- Production
of a new consciousness in spectator
Identification
model of Fascism versus Estrangement model of Brecht
- Techniques
of decentering by not relating to or focusing on the hero
- Attack
the invisibility of the ideological apparatus
- Mechanics
of not knowing oneself
- Hegemonic
spectator
- Consciousness
is purely psychological
Spectatorial
consciousness in Brechtian model:
- Not
a community of spectatorship
- Structural
recognition of how to change the situation
- Method
is for political ends (for whose politics?)
Althusser,
Louis. 1971. "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses."
In Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, 127-184. New York
and London: NLB.
Ideology and the State:
- Ideas
are a product/reproduction of the means of production
- Theory
comes out of a set of practices
- Repressive
State Apparatus
- Ideological
State Apparatus [We know about this normalizing system because
we act (within) it]:
- Religious,
educational, family, legal, etc.
- The
Church has been replaced by The School
- School
as determining the working classes
- Subjecthood:
- Interpolation
of individuals as already subjects
- Subject
participates in the practices of the ideological
apparatus
Walter
Benjamin
Benjamin,
Walter. 1968. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical
Reproduction." In Illuminations , New York:
Harcourt (1937).
- Aura:
that which cannot be reproduced
- Reproduction
is what is killing art
Bertolt
Brecht
Brecht,
Bertolt. "A Short Organum for the Theatre." In Brecht
on Theater , edited and translated by John Willet, 179-205.
New York: Hill and Wang.
Nature
of Art:
- Emphasis
on historical specificity: each society produces its own
kinds of theater
- Art
is by definition a political intervention. It can never
be apolitical
Role
of Pleasure:
- Art
works producing entertainment. Theatre's ultimate purpose
is pleasure
- Pleasure
and politics: Marxist approach to pleasure in politics
- Pleasure
does not need justification
Rationality
versus Emotionality:
- Need
to work with emotions, but at distance (anti-theatrical)
- Theatricality
trains the audience to be a good (complaint) audience, anti-instrumentality
of the endeavor (as opposed to fascist art?)
- Alienation
effect "A" effect
- Brechtian
theater contradicts the hegemonic training of actors in
the US
Contradictions:
- Rational
as reason and emotion as the irrational
- Role
of Science not thought through although scientific methods
were to be used for social life.
- Relationship
between the working class and intellectuals
Proposal
for Theater:
- Its
goal was to transform audience to a state of suspicious
inquiry. Make strange the ordinary
- Its
tool was making the state of things looks "strange." Split
between representation and the reality of the object represented.
- Theater
was to be for "children of the scientific age"
- Simple
plays provided weak pleasure while stronger pleasure was
derived from more complex ones.
- Attitude
towards society the same as attitude towards nature
- Appeals
to rationality (as opposed to the irrationality of fascism)
- Anti-naturalist:
making things look strange: separating the character and
the actor/actress so there is no way of identify both
Adorno
Theodor
Adorno on Brecht, "Commitment." In Aesthetics
and Politics .
Nature
of Art:
- There
is no un-political art, for there is no outside of society
- even
when oppositional, art is always part of society
- Committed
art: explicit political involvement and message of art.
Art as a means
- Autonomous
art: art for art's sake. Art as an end
Trauma
and Violence:
- Showing
suffering was obscene
- Audience
consumerism / victimizing the audience by portrayals of
violence
- How
to talk about violence without reproducing violence?
- Reenactment
of traumatic situation can be healing
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