Fedorenko Larysa. Lehrstück: genesis and development (on the material of Bertolt Brecht’s and Heiner Müller’s dramaturgy)

Abstract

The article provides the analysis of the Heiner Müller’s play «Mauser» in the context of Bertolt Brecht’s
conception about genre parameters of Lehrstück. Basic general characteristics of both playwrights are
distinguished: the emphasis on «didactic» in the dramaturgy; activization of reader / spectator; presence of the
chorus, which comments upon what is going on; the possibility of the play’s use for the amateurs as a «learning
exercise» with all complex of the Lehrstück’s research: the reproduction of the «model» → the analysis, the
discussion → the change of the primary material; the representation of the wrong protagonist’s behavior for the
purpose of the activization of the recipient’s thought (the teaching by a wrong, «asocial model», that needs a
correction); the characters are the nominal figures, some social collection. «Lehrstück» is a kind of a thesis play,
political and pedagogical art for non-professional audience that highlights important social and political issues
and analyses them through dialectical approach. The major concept of «Lehrstück» is that of a «learning-play».
Its educational method embraces a) reproduction of samples given in the text; b) insertion of private experience in
the play; c) analysis of experience and reproduced samples; d) adjustment of the text in compliance with the
analysis.