ABSTRACT
It is in the mid-thirties that Brecht turns with more focus to the methodological problem of acting, now relating it specifically to the question of alienation. It is during that period that alienation and acting are forged together into one coherent technique, acquiring the features that will typify Brecht's approach as a major one amongst twentieth-century acting methodology. Two texts are situated at the core of a complex of writings concerned with Chinese acting. The first one is entitled Observations on the Chinese Art of Acting. The second presents a more elaborate version of the former and includes in its title the new term Alienation Effects in the Chinese Art of Acting. Self-alienation is introduced as a primary mental attitude at the foundation of the alienation effect. Brecht's propagation of a method of self-alienation is persistently expressed in the critique of identificatory empathy, an approach which he equates with Stanislavski's Method, the Western 'Aristotelian' theatre, and with naturalism at large.
