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SASKIA FISCHER
new combinations of symbols, are tried out, to be discarded or accepted.””
Poetic rituality, in my understanding, describes the liminality of a dramatic
and theatrical performance in which the references to ritual practices and
ritual forms and structures are set in motion and through which new charac¬
teristics as well as aspects of rituality arise. Poetic rituality, therefore, can be
seen as a dynamic process that is constantly in progress. In this sense, poetic
rituality produces a new aesthetic that adopts characteristics ofritual practices
and allows them to become explicit or emphasizes the similarity of ritual to
drama or theater itself. That is why I speak of poetic rituality, which refers to
the Greek term poiésis (Greek: moinotc, English: “to do” or “to make”). Poetic
rituality leads to a fundamentally performative aesthetic, which, although ina
very artistic and poetic manner, is still deeply related to rituals and their way
to derive their meaningfulness through the performance itself.** Likewise, in
Brecht’s play Die Mafsnahme, ritual and rituality are not only a rigid and fixed
pattern but, in the aesthetic performance of the dramatic text, gain an open¬
ness and self-reflexivity that would not be possible with a ritual performed in
a religious context. The aesthetic form of the play is deeply connected to ritual
practices and, at the same time, differs from them. Creating a poetic or dy¬
namic rituality, this play is essentially connected to performativity, which is so
fundamental for rituals, as Victor Turner said; but Die Mafsnahme adapts this
quality of the ritual in a self-reflexive way. The play implements characteristics
of ritual practice, exposes the similarity to a ritual of the dramatic genre itself,
and makes rituality visible in its ambivalence and in its problematic potential
but also emphasizes the aesthetic innovation that can arise by referring to
rituals. Thus, poetic rituality in Brecht’s didactic play is constituted as an art
form that is constantly in process, and produces a new dramatic form.”°
BERTOLT BRECHT’S DIE MASSNAHME —
POLITICAL AGITPROP?
Die Mafsnahme follows the tradition of representations of sacrifices as they
were widely used on European stages at the beginning of the twentieth century.
23 Turner: Variations, 40.
24 Fischer: Ibid., 95-99.
» Wolfgang Braungart also uses the term ‘poetic rituality’ to describe the poems of Stefan
George. He mainly uses the term to describe the ritual elements occurring in George’s po¬
ems. (Wolfgang Braungart: Asthetischer Katholizismus. Stefan Georges Rituale der Literatur,
Tübingen, Niemeyer, 1997.) The concept of ‘poetic rituality’ developed here tries to make a
further contribution, as poetic rituality not only demands one or more ritual elements but
claims that an extensive use of ritual forms and elements generates the form of the entire
artwork and, through this, creates anew understanding of what art is, how it deals with reality
and incorporates but also appropriates cultural practices such as rituals.
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