Spectres of Brecht - Theory building in theater studies in the wake of (post-)Marxism

• Applicant: Dr. Hans Roth
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 566958484

The junior research group investigates the reception and revision of (post-)Marxist approaches in German theater studies as a largely unexplored chapter in the recent history of the discipline and its theories, a chapter that during the Cold War was closely linked to the struggles over Bertolt Brecht's political and aesthetic legacy. The research project is based on the observation that the critical examination of Brecht and other (post-)Marxist positions has not only contributed to the development of new concepts and research approaches within the field of theatre studies, but has also stimulated a fundamental repositioning of the discipline between theory and practice, historiography and the present, art and culture. By comparing the approach of theatricality studies developed in the GDR and the post-dramatic approach of the so-called "Giessen School", the proposed research group aims at developing a fundamental understanding of their theoretical-historical connections. In three sub-projects, the junior research group examines how the paradigm shift from Marxist approaches to Post-structuralism and Cultural Studies, the establishment of a specific form of theatrical thinking and the emergence of new aesthetic forms in theatre have affected each other.

• DFG Programme: Emmy Noether Independent Junior Research Groups