ABSTRACT
Peter Szondi writes, apropos Hegel’s conception of the dialectic circa the Phenomenology of Spirit, that therein ‘the dialectic, which is also the tragic (and the overcoming of the tragic), goes beyond the limits posited’ in Hegel’s earlier Aesthetics (Szondi 1961: 21). Of importance to us here is Szondi’s surmise that, in Hegel’s mature thought, the dialectic and the tragic become identical, and that ‘the dialectic knows no realm that remains closed off to it’ (21). In other words, as Rodolphe Gasché extrapolates, ‘dialectic remains another name for the tragic and for its overcoming. Dialectic is structurally tragic, and tragedy correspondingly dialectic’ (Gasché 2000: 39). In this chapter I wish to reconcile the apparent contradiction this creates for Brecht’s vocal antagonism towards tragedy. Drawing primarily upon Theodor Adorno and Raymond Williams, I will argue that Brecht’s mature plays embody a post-Hegelian, dialectical, tragic vision that culminate in zweideutig moments, equivocal moments that are embodiments of Benjamin’s dialectic at a standstill, and also of Adorno’s negative dialectic. As in previous chapters, I wish to illuminate a facet of Brecht that may at first glance seem utterly contrary to the received understanding of Brecht. In particular, my goal of articulating points of concordance between Brecht and Adorno pushes against the grain of well-known criticisms made by Adorno in reference to Brecht’s political didacticism.
