브레히트의 서사극(Episches Theater)과 음악

Bertolt Brecht's Epic Theater and Music

Bertolt Brecht(1898-1956) is one of the greatest German writers in the 20th century. Criticizing the traditional drama, he established and developed a new theater form, called epic theater. Not empathy but “Verfremdung” is the central aesthetic concept of epic theater. Its purpose is to make the audience see the social constellation objectively and to take a critical view of the social reality. It will lead the audience to the cognition and enlightenment that implicate the social changes. It means the perfect functional conversion of the traditional theater. For this functional conversion, Brecht gave a new function to music. In epic theater music disturbs the empathy of audience through the “Verfremdungseffect” and plays the role of reflection and comment. Music shows the social “Gestus” and requires the audience and the actors to keep a distance from the stage. As a independent element music is also related to the cognition and enlightenment of audience. The historical Meaning of Brecht's epic theater can be summed up in two ways: On the one hand it intermediates between art and reality through emphasizing the socioal function of art, on the other hand it establishes a new aesthetics through denying the traditional aesthetic principles and introducing of the concept of “Verfremdung”. His “V-Effekt” has a great influence on succeeding development of theater.