ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book proceeds from a single overarching idea: the dramaturgy of Bertolt Brecht constitutes a unique modern aesthetic that opens new avenues of thought about art and life. It builds on the discussion of Brecht’s politicization of the imaginary register, through an analysis of what Walter Benjamin calls the dialectical image. The book examines the influence of Brecht on the critical activity of Roland Barthes. It builds upon the structuralist and post-structuralist Brecht that emerges from Barthes’s essays in an examination of Fredric Jameson’s recent Brecht and Method and the relationship of Jameson’s Brecht to Jameson’s critical activity. The chapter addresses Brecht’s appropriation of tragedy for dialectical ends. Here, I suggest points of similarity between Brecht’s dialectic and Theodor Adorno’s negative dialectic.
