International Brecht Society

New Brecht books

Bertolt Brecht, Me-ti: Book of Interventions in the Flow of Things, trans. and edited by Antony Tatlow (London: Bloomsbury, July 2016) http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/bertolt-brechts-me-ti-9781472579164/

Joel Schechter, Eighteenth-Century Brechtians: Theatrical Satire in the Age of Walpole (Exeter UP, 2016) http://www.exeterpress.co.uk/en/Book/817/EighteenthCentury-Brechtians.html

"Rethinking Brecht", a special issue of German Life and Letters, 69.2 (April 2016), available from Wiley Blackwell

Bertolt Brecht, The Business Affairs of Mr Julius Caesar, trans. Charles Osborne (London: Bloomsbury, 2016) http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-business-affairs-of-mr-julius-caesar-9781472582720/

Questions about English-language performance rights of Brecht's plays? Click here for more details.

Drama Online is a new portal for Internet access to the works of major playwrights, including Bertolt Brecht in English translation. For information, see:
http://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/
For the 40+ selections by Brecht:
http://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/playwrights/bertolt-brecht-iid-12335

Brecht's Works in English: A Bibliography
Check this new website with almost 2900 entries if you are looking for Brecht's plays, poems, songs, stories, or essays in English translation: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/BrechtGuide/

The digital Brecht Yearbook, vols. 1-34 (1971-2009) / Das Brecht-Jahrbuchdigital, Bd. 1-34 (1971-2009): http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/German.BrechtYearbook

KURT WEILL FOUNDATION GRANT PROGRAM – Deadline 1 November
The Kurt Weill Foundation Grant Program awards financial support worldwide to not-for-profit organizations for performances of musical works by Kurt Weill and Marc Blitzstein, to individuals and not-for-profit organizations for scholarly research pertaining to Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya, and Marc Blitzstein, and to not-for-profit organizations for relevant educational initiatives. For more information and guidelines, see: http://www.kwf.org/pages/grants-a-prizes.html
or call New York City: (212) 505-5240

Announcements

The IBS is sponsoring three sessions at the 40th annual conference of the German Studies Association in San Diego, CA (Sept. 29 - Oct. 2, 2016).

#47. 1956: Brecht, Death, and Socialism
Fri 10:30 am – 12: 15 pm, Royal Palm Salon 4
Moderator: Kristopher Imbrigotta (University of Puget Sound)
1) Mark Clark (University of Virginia) – Crisis and the Escalation of Contradictions: Brecht’s Intellectual Model in the Crucible of 1956
2) Sean Forner (Michigan State University) – Marxism, Post-Stalinism, Philosophy: "Socialist Freedom" in East Berlin, 1956
3) Helen Fehervary (Ohio State University) – Intellectuals on the Eve and in the Wake of Revolution: Bertolt Brecht, Johannes R. Becher, Anna Seghers, Georg Lukács
4) Stephen Brockmann (Carnegie Mellon University) – Making Poems for Adults: Brecht's Last Literary Project
Commentator: Jost Hermand (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

#147. Brecht / Reception Before and After 1956
Sat 8:00 am – 10:15 am, Sunset
Moderator: Paula Hanssen (Webster University)
1) Wei Zhang (University of Hawaii at Manoa): Dialectical Contradiction in a Postwar Milieu: The Chinese Influence of Lao Tzu and Mao Tzu Tung’s Philosophy on Brecht's Late Creation, 1950-1956
2) Anna Horakova (Cornell University): Brecht's Cultural Afterlife: 1956, Junge Kunst and the Early Didactic Plays of Heiner Müller
3) Vera Stegmann (Lehigh University) – Yoko Tawada's Art of Alienation
Commentator: Jack Davis (Truman State University)

#233. The Brechtian Turn
Sat 4:15 pm – 6:00 pm, Royal Palm Salon 4
Moderator: Paula Hanssen (Webster University)
1) Jost Hermand (University of Wisconsin-Madison) – Brecht und die Literaturwissenschaft
2) Marc Silberman (University of Wisconsin-Madison) – “The Brechtian Turn" in der Filmwissenschaft
3) Kerstin Hensel (Berlin) – Eine Poetin zwischen Zeitenwende und Brechtian Turn
Commentator: Hunter Bivens (University of California at Santa Cruz)

The IBS is sponsoring one session at the annual Modern Language Association convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Jan. 5-8, 2017):

Session 197: Friday, Jan. 6, 2017

8:30–9:45 a.m., 310, Philadelphia Marriott

Brecht, Affect, Empathy
Presiding: Theodore F. Rippey (Bowling Green State University)
1) Günther Heeg (Universität Leipzig) – The Power Station of Emotions: Brechts Theater of Affective Stasis
2) Hunter Bivens (University of California at Santa Cruz) – Brecht's Cruel Optimism or, What are Socialist Affects?
3) Claudia Breger (Indiana University, Bloomington) – Intertwining Verfremdung and Intensity: Brechtian Aesthetics and the Play of Affects in Godard and Fassbinder
Respondent: Marc Silberman (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

IBS Election
Every two years elections for the steering committee of the International Brecht Society take place. The nominees for 2016 and 2017 have been elected: Alle zwei Jahre findet die Wahl des Vorstands der Internationalen Brecht-Gesellschaft statt. Die Kandidatenliste für 2016 und 2017 wurde gewählt:

President: Stephen Brockmann (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
Vice President: Günther Heeg (Universität Leipzig, BRD)
Co-editors of 'Communications': Jack Davis (Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri) and Kristopher Imbrigotta (University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington)
Secretary/Treasurer: Paula Hanssen (Webster University, St. Louis, USA) and Sylvia Fischer (University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida)