Brecht and Beckett, and Benjamin and Adorno

Brecht and Beckett, and Benjamin and Adorno is a Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies course taught by Jeffrey Wallen.

Course Description
In his writings, Theodor Adorno contrasts the plays of Samuel Beckett and Bertolt Brecht, suggesting they represent two major tendencies of twentieth-century art, and he praises Beckett while critiquing Brecht. Adorno's friend and colleague Walter Benjamin, on the other hand, ardently promoted Brecht's work. Profound and incompatible views about the nature of aesthetics and politics are at the heart of their disagreement. In this course, we will read several plays by Brecht and Beckett, and explore the aesthetic, critical, and social possibilities that their work engages. We will analyze their very different approaches to theater, and read some of their critical, fictional, and poetic work. We will also read several essays by Adorno and Benjamin, and grapple with their unsettling and provocative ideas.