ABSTRACT
Alienation, is a concept which in the theory and practice of theatre and aesthetics has come to be inextricably linked with the name of Bertolt Brecht. Anti-naturalism, fragmentation, minimalism and dialectics: these are the associations that alienation as a dramaturgical concept brings to mind. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reinvestigates Brecht's concept of aesthetic alienation through the lens of Diderot. It critically illuminates the notion of Verfremdung through Diderot's observations, in order to reclaim the usefulness of an aesthetic of alienation in the theatre and other art forms. It recognizes the importance of responding through aesthetics to social alienation and believes that the medium of theatre can provide a particularly fruitful tension. The chapter presents a comparison that shows that the similarities between Diderot and Brecht are outweighed by radical differences.
