CPL310 9/27/2004 Our presentations should be about 10 minutes. Give most interesting themes to people who haven't read the work. -- we do need to know the themes from the other works (short answer on the test) April Ward is other person doing "Before Daybreak" Themes in "Life of Galileo" -- new truth vs. past order -- power of religion in society -- truth and proof vs. denial -- self preservation vs. principal -- Galileo's natures (physical vs. intellectual) Clavius, the court astronomer, says Galileo is correct. -- still the truth is too dangerous, they say Galileo is self-indulgent (especially when it comes to food). -- references to food or money (Galileo says he can think better when he's comfortable) -- Pope knew they wouldn't have to torture Galileo, only show him te instruments (threaten him). Scene where little monk beseeches Galileo to put aside science for the good of society Brecht was a lot like the Galileo he protrayed. Brecht smoked cheap cigars because he wanted to appear to be living the proletarian lifestyle. -- however, Brecht always looked out for his own best interests, exploiting people The first couple scenes stress the "new age." Brecht's writing stages -- first stage: nihilistic, man was predator and prey -- second stage: pro-communist, anti-Nazi, wanted audience to interact with cast to come up with new insight (four plays in late 30s/early 40s were his masterworks; show that there are some insights but they don't lead to utopia and endanger people unless they capitulate) (in the play "A Man's a Man", a man lets his identity be changed in exchange for some beers from some soldiers; human nature is weak and changeable) -- third stage: human nature is weak and changeable -- scientists are na?ve (about what people think) Epic theater is a term made famous by Brecht. -- narrative theater -- provoke people to use their powers of reason and to engage issues instead of being wrapped up in emotions -- telling a story instead of trying to recreate it -- he was upset that people felt sorry for the mother and the kids in Mother Courage; he wanted people to think about why this stuff happened instead of feeling emotions about it -- Brecht wanted to break down the fourth wall; audience shouldn't even try to imagine that what's on stage is reality; this is the "alienation effect"; what's on stage shouldn't appear real and normal but alien; this should make you ask why the events of theh story happened -- Brecht always asked for untrained voices so people would pay attention to the words and not the beauty of the voices -- scene titles; posted on stage saying what's going to happen; e.g. "In this scene Mother Courage loses her first son"; that way people won't wonder what will happen but will think about why it happened -- instead of having full curtains, he had half curtains or no curtain so the audience could see scene changes and remember it's not reality -- interruptions for discussion: he had actors turn to the audience (breaking down the fourth wall); some plays have five-minute breaks to ask the audience members what they thought about what happened Lehrst?cke -- the didactic plays Brecht wrote right after his conversion to Marxism -- teaching plays -- he wanted the actors and audience to learn -- he used the term Darsteller (presenter) instead of Schauspieler (actor) because he didn't want them to become their roles -- dialectic: he often paired two opposing ideas he wanted to combine into a new truth; one play is "The Yes-sayer and the No-sayer" have the same scene twice with different answers Life of Galileo -- Andrea -- ships used to hug coast but no longer; this is a new age, a new time (neue Zeit) -- gawking (gawping) vs. seeing (sign in theater during Brecht play: Glotzt nicht so romantisch! -- theme of milk comes up later; Galileo asks if science made the milk more affordable -- Bentley's introduction to the version used in class says that Brecht got some things wrong; people didn't really believe that man was favored by being in the center of the universe since God was way up there -- Galileo doesn't tell the entire truth about telescopes to the Republic of Venice so he can earn money -- he needs the money to avoid doing private lessons so he can have more time -- Galileo could go to Florence and be paid better but he wouldn't have the same freedoms -- at the end of scene 1 Galileo says he's 46 and has done nothing that satisfies him -- scene 2: Galileo sold the telescope to Venice as his own discovery -- Venetians are thinking about warfare -- scene 3: "Galileo abolishes heaven" -- people are concerned that Jupiter's moons have nothing supporting them in space -- Sagredo says that he's frightened; of what? Having a void in his own world view and of how the authorities and society will react</plaintext><br /></body></html>