Topic > Marxist reading of Bertold Brecht's play The Caucasian Chalk Circle

“Behavior is guided by existing demands and biological needs, and actors formulate a strategy to effectively modify empirical reality in their own interests.” Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Many 20th-century communist writers reacted seriously to the tragic dimensions of revolutionary violence, sacrifice, and social injustice. However, Brecht's works were exceptional, his technique of dealing with these problems in a comical way leaves a deep impression on the audience, pushing them to anticipate the wave that requires the need to intervene and change the world. In 1926, Bertolt Brecht's first impression with the philosophy of Marxism developed from the work of Karl Marx and the work of Friedrich Engels who he studied systematically with Karl Korsch as his teacher. As he says, "It was only when I read Lenin's State and Revolution and then Marx's Capital that I understood, philosophically, where I was." Korch had originally been a member of the German Communist Party but was expelled in 1926 due to his opposition. to their interpretation of Marxist theory. He perceived their interpretation of Marx's theoretical and philosophical framework as vulgarization, manipulating Marx's original conception of materialism for their political benefits. In his view, Lenin and Stalin distorted Marxist dialectics into a cruel version of materialist revenge and subordinated the complexities to the very specific interest of the party. But Brecht did not blindly follow Korch's position, he found few principles of Lenin and Stalin necessary for a social revolution within the existing structure of society. In Bertolt Brecht's play, The Life of Galileo, Brecht imagines the society that witnesses the bourgeois form of revolution. supported by ideological apparatuses. The state apparatus plays a fundamental role in protecting the hegemony of the ruling class ideology. To eliminate existential anxiety, an individual aligns himself with the interests of the state and the ruling class which make a utopian promise to also incorporate the interests of the subaltern class into the political dynamics. The two main characteristics of Marxism commonly found in Brecht's works are the empirical method of achieving correctness and the dialectical form of thought. By using songs in his plays, Brecht draws two parallel realities that do not conventionally follow the ideal parameters of moral and emotional deficiencies as the measurement scale used to reach the ultimate destination called truth sustained in the obvious horrors of reality. In these songs, Brecht interpolates the predictable changes that will come into the larger picture of reality based on the bourgeois notion of science and truth. The song of the four generals, in the second act entitled The struggle in the Northern mountains, The chalk circle of the Caucasus, illustrates the lyrical beauty sustained in the scientific investigation of victory based on the Marxist instrument of investigation of human behavior; Despite all the complexities related to the existing condition, this song praises the courage with which, despite stiff opposition, Joseph Stalin attempted to establish Stalinist socialism in Russia: "Four generals left for Iran. With the first, the war was not agreed. The second never won a victoryFor the third the time was never right.For four quarters the men would never fight.Four generalsAnd not a single man!Sosso RobakidseHe went marching towards IranWith him the war was so d 'agreementSoon he achieved a victory.For him, time was always right.For him, men would always fight Sosso Robakidse, He is our man!' In the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin introduced rapid industrial development, which caused class warfare in Russia declared in the best interests of the poor and collectivized Russian agriculture to erase the egalitarian goals of the Bolshevik Revolution. Stalinist socialism provided fertile ground for urban industry, despite considerable rural opposition. After Joseph Stalin's death, Brecht replaced the Russian names in the play with Georgian ones. This song pays homage to Joseph Stalin and Georgia was his home country. Sosso is the Georgian name for Joe, it was Stalin's nickname as a child. Without Stalin's support, Brecht would not have survived both as a Marxist and as a poet who wanted to change the world. Brecht fluidly illustrated his psychological perception of Marxism and communist point of view. In his plays, he establishes a dichotomous relationship between an individual (identity conceived as "I") and the formulation of "unity", manipulated by the capitalist means of production to progress. In Brecht's works the structural foundations and comic exchange of dialogue highlight the conflict between what is and what should be; between the subject's actions and thoughts and the harsh reality that is imposed on him. The prologue of The Caucasian Chalk Circle begins with the land dispute, set in the Russian province of Georgia, a modern society meeting between delegates from two Soviet collective farms arguing over their respective rights to a piece of land. The prologue clarifies the collective class struggle. The “Galinsk” Kolchos, goat herders, had been evacuated from the valley by government order as Hitler's armies advanced. After the expulsion of the Nazis, the Kolchos plan to go back, because the farmers are attached to their old homeland and because their goats prefer the grass of that land: “Old, true: because you can't like it. Because it's not what it was in the old days. And why not? Because our goats don't like new grass. The pastures down there are not good, not even the smell of morning in the morning. (many people laugh.) Please put this in your report.” Members of the nearby fruit-growing Kolchos “Rosa Luxemburg” had defended the land as guerrillas in the surrounding mountains. To stop the enemy they developed a plan to rebuild the village after the war so that it was bigger and more productive. Included in the plan was an irrigation project to develop new vineyards. The project, however, would not bear fruit unless the disputed valley is also used for its purposes. In the discussion conducted by experts from the capital, the arguments of common sense prevail over those of love for the country, because we must rather consider a feel for the earth as an instrument with which something useful is produced. “Galinsk” delegates are reluctant to give up their old home. But they realize the practicality of the proposals, and furthermore in their new home they will receive state aid to help them with horse breeding. In the midst of this discussion, Brecht invented a fable (Grusha) that struggles to align itself with the territory of moral and spiritual truth, because its socio-political dynamics are the daughters of capitalism. Brecht skillfully through his dramatic technique alienated the effect of external reality which does not allow each class to equally satisfy their needs and at the same time shows how this affects the individual and how he or she constantly tries to deal with external reality in which to experience cooperation with external reality, based on the scientific investigation of the truth. For the characters in Brecht's world, Public Cooperation is the fundamental lens for seeing.