ABSTRACT
M any com m entators have recognised tha t in adopting the term ‘dialectics’ for his late essays, Brecht was in fact return ing to a m uch earlier usage. In 1930 he had announced a series of essays u n der the title ‘O n a dialectical d ra m a ’. T he title ‘O n a non-aristo telian d ra m a ’ was in the event p referred to this, bu t the Collected Works includes a 14-page set of notes, dated 1931, titled ‘T he dialectical d ra m a ’, whose sub-title announces ‘G rundgedanke: A nw endung der D ialektik führt zu revolutionärem M arx ism us’ ( ‘T he fu n d a m ental them e: the application of the dialectic leads to revolutionary M arx ism ’) .1 Som e of the argum ents of this essay are also very close to those developed in su rround ing essays, such as ‘T he epic theatre and its difficulties’ (1927), ‘O n form and subject m a tte r’ (1929) and the notes to The Rise and Fall of the Town Mahagonny (1930) and The Threepenny Opera (1931).
