Ludic Philosophy in Brecht’s Drama and Prose

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985955%3A_____%2F18%3A00490740" target="_blank" >RIV/67985955:_____/18:00490740 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Ludic Philosophy in Brecht’s Drama and Prose

Original language description

This essay looks into ways Bertolt Brecht recycles and exploits what could be called “ludic thinking” mainly in his play Schweik in the Second World War (Schweyk im Zweiten Weltkrieg) and in his Stories of Mr. Keuner. The “ludic” is a significant term in that it does not denote something merely amusing, light, unserious, or escapist (“it is just a game”), it rather signifies a structure that through the categories of play, lightness, or amusement actually grasps seriousness, reality and ethics par excellence. In a three-step argument, I show the kind of ludic approach Brecht uses in his works in the frame of his practices of recycling. First, I explain the project of ludic thinking in its broader historical and systematic context. I mainly flesh out the ideas of Donald Winnicott and Friedrich Nietzsche, who not only introduce the important duality of seriousness and playfulness in the ludic stance, but also show how playfulness nourishes maturity in human beings. Winnicott and Nietzsche also touch upon the ethical dimension of play that plays a crucial role in the reflection on ludic thinking in Brecht, too. Secondly, the aspects of ludic thinking in Brecht are elucidated by clarifying the characteristics of the Brechtian ludic agent. Through the analysis of several passages of the original story on Schweik and its recycling by Brecht, and through analysis of particular stories of Mr. Keuner, I identify these aspects in the rejection of “identification with” and “separation from” as well as in the self-distance and distance from social norms. Lastly, I show that the ludic approach forms a basis of a unique philosophical thinking and ethics.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

C - Chapter in a specialist book

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60301 - Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GJ16-00994Y" target="_blank" >GJ16-00994Y: Performativity in Philosophy: Contexts, Methods, Implications</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2018

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Book/collection name

The Brecht Yearbook 42: Recycling Brecht

ISBN

978-0-9851956-5-6

Number of pages of the result

14

Pages from-to

51-64

Number of pages of the book

292

Publisher name

Camden House

Place of publication

New York

UT code for WoS chapter

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