Book Reviews 
 
 
    Many a time, while reading my way through the study, I was 
reminded of one of Brecht's favorite Charlie Chaplin scenes. In Working 
Journal Brecht writes: "In order to fit neatly into compartments, literary

works have to be cut to size. I once saw Charlie Chaplin pack a 
suitcase. Whatever ended up sticking out, the legs of his trousers and 
the ends of his shirts, he simply cut off with a pair of scissors" 
(Gesammelte Werke, 19, 415). That the authors of the present 
monograph are aware of the dangers of trying to squeeze any segment 
of Brecht's work into too narrow a compartment, is evident in their 
critique of Reiner Steinweg's thesis that the Lehrstiicke constitute the

theater of the future and that the major plays of Brecht's exile years 
should be seen as "expedient solutions" (p. 148). This critique
is 
justified. Yet, since the authors allowed themselves major simplifi- 
cations and omissions, their critical stance is reminiscent of the 
proverbial pot calling the kettle black! Of course, the double task the 
authors set themselves is a momentous one: 1) to offer a systematic 
introduction to Brecht's complete ceuvre based on the latest research 
findings and 2) to stress works that have hitherto been neglected. How 
did they manage to pack an overview of the socio-political and literary 
conditions in Germany, as well as a treatment of the playwright's 
politico-aesthetic experiments of the late twenties, plus two sections on

Brecht's theoretical reflections about the media and the theater, in 
addition to a treatise on the Threepenny Novel and a study of some of 
Brecht's late adaptations, particularly of The Tutor, in their neatly 
bundled 432 pages? The answer is that they did not include some 
important works like Saint Joan of the Stockyards, The Seven Deadly 
Sins, The Exception and the Rule, the shorter prose works and "The 
Hollywood Elegies" and other poetry from the American exile. 
    The authors grant in their introduction that omitting the first of these

works is problematic, claiming that Saint Joan simply would not have fit

into the frame of reference they used in dealing with Brecht's politico-

aesthetic experiments of the late twenties and early thirties (p.18). 
Obviously, the complex Saint Joan figure is much harder to categorize 
than the Young Comrade of The Measures Taken, because despite her 
failing in the class struggle, she cannot simply stand as a "model for

asocial behavior" (pp.1 54f). Moreover, the authors' linear development

would have been disturbed if they had dealt with Brecht's treatment of a

popular heroine and with his reception of the German classics at a point

where they were concentrating on the more radical experiments of the 
Lehrstucke. In the further course of the study there is at least 
occasional reference made to Saint Joan of the Stockyards. Not so, 
however, to The Seven Deadly Sins. It is odd that Anna/Anna should not 
even be mentioned when the authors are dealing with the Shen Te/Shui 
Ta persona split (pp. 287ff). 
    Apart from primary texts the authors did not include, there are 
secondary materials they treated the way Charlie Chaplin treated his 
pants and shirts. They simply cut off what would not fit in. For example,

taking note bibliographically of Regina Wagenknecht's treatise Bertolt 
Brechts Hauspostille (p.73). They ignore her reading of "The Ballad
of 
Hanna Cash" as parody and reiterate instead the old, implausible and

 
 
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