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SASKIA FISCHER
most diverse ritual contexts in his play, and, especially through the reference
to Luther’s translation of the Bible and the use of language in the Christian
liturgy, also develops an aesthetic of objection in linguistic terms. By this
reference, he explicitly distances himself from a classicist aesthetic and the
“oily smoothness” [olige[n] Glatte] of blank verse, as he formulates in his essay
Über reimlose Lyrik mit unregelmäßigen Rhythmen [On Rhymeless Poetry with
Irregular Rhythms].”: The language of his play, with its inversions, anacolutha,
juxtapositions, and irregular rhythms, is based on a mode of speech that is
not, as Brecht attributes to blank verse, “un-approvedly lulling” and “soporific”
[“unangenehm einlullend,” “einschlafernd”].”” Rather, Brecht obtains a literary
form from Luther’s translation of the Bible and the Christian liturgy, whose
established accents and re-accentuations he varies and dynamizes. Such a lan¬
guage counteracts the central risk of a ritual aesthetic — as he describes it in
all his theoretical essays — of being captivating, overwhelming, and narcotic.
It is a language that interrupts and suddenly brings on a new thought. It cannot
simply be entrusted without reflection. For this language, precisely the ways of
reciting and praying in the Christian liturgy and the language of Luther’s Bible
are key inspirations for him. Within the mixture of Noh theater, Greek tragedy,
and Christian genres and forms of rituality, Brecht creates a unique style and
further unfolds his idea of epic theater in this play that, through cultural dif¬
ferences, is still relatable and understandable in a transcultural way. It is an
aesthetic that his play Die Mafsnahme unfolds, reflecting on the abysses and
risks that rituals and ritual theater can bear, and, by this, creating an innova¬
tive, self-reflective “poetic rituality,” which he developed further after 1945.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ASSMANN, Jan — STROHM Harald (eds.): Herrscherkult und Heilserwartung,
Miinchen, Fink, 2010.
BELL, Catherine : Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, New York, Oxford University
Press, 1992.
Boer, Dick: Die Gewalt, die Armut und das gute Leben. Bertolt Brecht und
die Religion, Texte und Kontext 28 (2005), 30-42.
BRANDSTETTER, Gabriele: Pina Bauschs ‘Das Frühlingsopfer.’ Signatur —
Übertragung - Kontext, in G. Brandstetter — G. Klein (eds.): Methoden der
Tanzwissenschaft. Modellanalysen zu Pina Bauschs Le Sacre du Printemps /
Das Frühlingsopfer’, Bielefeld, transcript Verlag, 2015.
7! Brecht: Über reimlose Lyrik mit unregelmäßigen Rhythmen, in GBA 22.1, 358.
72 Brecht: [Nachtrag zu: Über reimlose Lyrik mit unregelmäßigen Rhythmen], in GBA 22.1, 364.
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