Tag Archives: Bertolt Brecht

Brecht on Speaking Truth to Power

By Robin Bates | Published: August 20, 2018

Monday A Bertolt Brecht poem came to mind when Retired Navy Admiral William H. McRaven came to the defense of former CIA Director John Brennan, stripped of his security clearance by a Donald Trump angry at his criticisms. Vox has the story of what happened: The man who led the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Burning of the Books", 1984, Donald Trump, George Orwell, John Brennan, Rudy Giuliani, William H. McRaven | Comments closed

My “Last Lecture”

By Robin Bates | Published: April 16, 2018

I share here my “last lecture” from my retirement ceremony. (But rest assured: I will not be retiring from this blog.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aristotle, Chinua Achebe, Divine Comedy, Goethe, Heart of Darkness, Horace, Huckleberry Finn, integration, Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, Martha Nussbaum Wayne Booth, Matthew Arnold, Percy Shelley, Plato, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Samuel Johnson, segregation, Sir Philip Sydney, Terry Eagleton, W. E. B. Du Bois, Wayne Booth | Comments closed

Theories about Lit’s Impact

By Robin Bates | Published: March 12, 2018

A transcript of a talk given at the University of Ljubljana on “how literature changes lives.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aristotle, Chinua Achebe, Frederick Engel, Horace, Karl Marx, Martha Nussbaum, Matthew Arnold, Percy Shelley, Plato, Rachel Blau du Plessis, Samuel Johnson, Sir Philip Sidney, Wayne Booth | Comments closed

Brecht Quatrains for Challenging Times

By Robin Bates | Published: November 17, 2017

During World War II Bertolt Brecht wrote quatrains that speak powerfully to our own political times.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Adolph Hitler, Donald Trump, refugees, war, War Primer | Comments closed

Brecht Explains Castile Shooting

By Robin Bates | Published: July 6, 2017

To understand why cops continue to shoot innocent people of color and why juries acquit them, Brecht has the definitive explanation in his play “The Exception and the Rule.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Black Lives Matter, cop killings, Exception and the Rule, Philando Castile, Tamir Rice | Comments closed

The World’s One Hope: Compassion

By Robin Bates | Published: January 27, 2017

Bertolt Brecht’s “”The World One Hope” addresses the problem of growing callousness but then points to how we can break through to compassion.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "World's One Hope", discrimination, Donald Trump, GOP, oppression, Trumpism | Comments closed

Brecht’s Working Class Revenge Fantasy

By Robin Bates | Published: February 11, 2016

Many working class and lower middle class Americans have felt abandoned by the GOP and Democratic establishments. Bertolt Brecht’s “Pirate Jenny” articulates a revenge fantasy that captures some of their anger.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Pirate Jenny", Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, politics, Presidential Primaries | Comments closed

Why It’s Good To Offend Students

By Robin Bates | Published: September 1, 2015

An entering Duke student has refused to read Alison Bechdel’s “Fun House.” A professor comes partially to his defense.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Burning of the Books", Alison Bechdel, censorship, college life, Franz Kafka, freshman orientation, Fun House, homosexuality, reader response | Comments closed

Pledge Your Intellect to Freedom

By Robin Bates | Published: September 1, 2014

Brecht’s poem to students of workers and peasants reminds them that they are being educated thanks to the bloody struggles of those who came before.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "To the Students of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Faculty", education in America, labor struggles, privilege, public education, tracking | Comments closed