1. An earlier version of this chapter appeared in Essays on Brecht = Versuche über Brecht , Brecht Yearbook, vol. 15, ed. Marc Silberman et al. (Madison: International Brecht Society/University of Wisconsin Press, 1990), 125-149.

Bertolt Brecht, Die Geschäfte des Herrn Julius Caesar (Berlin: Gebrüder Weiss, 1957), 51. See Walter Busch, Caesarismuskritik und epische Historik: Zur Entwicklung der politischen Ästhetik Bertolt Brechts 1936-1940 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1982), 43; Herbert Claas, Die politische Ästhetik Bertolt Brechts vom Baal zum Caesar (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1977), 167; Wolfgang Dieter Lebek, "Brechts Caesar-Roman: Kritisches zu einem Idol," in Bertolt Brecht--Aspekte seines Werkes, Spuren seiner Wirkung , ed. Helmut Koopmann and Theo Stammen (Munich: Verlag Ernst Vogel, 1983), 173-174; Harro Müller, "Anmerkungen zu Brechts historischem Roman Die Geschäfte des Herrn Julius Caesar ," Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie 104, no. 4 (1985):602. [BACK]

2. The novel fragment is relatively obscure among Brecht's works, despite its being held in high regard by a number of critics. The segments included in Straub/Huillet's screenplay remain the only English translation: see " History Lessons ," Screen 17, no. 1 (Spring 1976):54-76. [BACK]

3. Class, Die politische Ästhetik , 137. [BACK]

4. Maureen Turim, "Textuality and Theatricality in Brecht and Straub/Huillet: History Lessons (1972)," in German Film and Literature: Adaptations and Transformations , ed. Eric Rentschler (New York: Methuen, 1986), 235. Turim concentrates on

the theatricality, which makes the film an excellent example of "political modernism," rather than examining the method of narration. [BACK]

5. Sylvia Harvey, "Whose Brecht? Memories for the Eighties," Sreen 23, no. 1 (May/June 1982):57. [BACK]

6. See Martin Walsh, "Brecht and Straub/Huillet: The Frontiers of Language, History Lessons," Afterimage 7 (Summer 1978):12-32. Reprinted (abridged) as " History Lessons : Brecht and Straub/Huillet," in Martin Walsh, The Brechtian Aspect of Radical Cinema , ed. Keith M. Griffiths (London: British Film Institute, 1981), 60-77. [BACK]

7. See Peter Gidal, Materialist Film (London: Routledge, 1989), 36-41, 90. The reification of Brecht's ideas into a prescriptive theory is discussed at length in D.N. Rodowick, The Crisis of Political Modernism: Criticism and Ideology in Contemporary Film Theory (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988), esp. chaps. 6 and 7. [BACK]

8. See Christopher Roos, "The Adventures of the Signifier: The Driving Sequences in History Lessons," Purdue Film Studies Annual (1980):250-255; Gilberto Perez, "Modernist Cinema: The History Lessons of Straub and Huillet," Artforum 17, no. 2 (October 1978):46-55; Maureen Turim, "Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet: Oblique Angles on Film as Ideological Intervention," in New German Filmmakers , ed. Klaus Philips (New York: Ungar, 1984), 335-358. [BACK]

9. Harvey, "Whose Brecht?" 56. [BACK]

10. Martin Walsh, "Frontiers of Language," 21. [BACK]

11. See Hans Jürgen Syberberg, Hitler--ein Film aus Deutschland , 1977. [BACK]

12. H. Müller, "Anmerkungen zu Brechts historischem Roman," 602; and Claas, Die politische Ästhetik , 11. [BACK]

13. Bertolt Brecht, Arbeitsjournal , 2 vols., ed. Werner Hecht (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1973), 1:72 (7 December 1939). All translations are my own. [BACK]

14. Brecht, Arbeitsjournal , 1:42 (26 February 1939). [BACK]

15. Ibid., 1:11 (23 July 1938). [BACK]

16. Klaus-Detlef Müller, Die Funktion der Geschichte im Werk Bertolt Brechts: Studien zum Verhältnis von Marxismus und Aesthetik (Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1972), 31. [BACK]

17. Ibid., 113. [BACK]

18. Bertolt Brecht, Die Geschäfte des Herrn Julius Caesar (Berlin: Gebrüder Weiss, 1957), 51. [BACK]

19. Ibid., 50. [BACK]

20. Ibid., 217. [BACK]

21. Ibid., 232. [BACK]

22. K.-D. Müller, Die Funktion der Geschichte , 113. [BACK]

23. Brecht, Geschäfte , 208. [BACK]

24. Ibid., 211-212. [BACK]

25. Walsh, "Frontiers of Language," 21. [BACK]

26. Wolfram Schütte, "Gegenwartskunde oder Citizen C.," Frankfurter Rundschau , 12 October 1972. [BACK]

27. Jan Kopf, Bertolt Brecht: Ein kritischer Forschungsbericht: Fragwürdiges in der Brecht-Forschung (Frankfurt am Main: Athenäum, 1974), 57. [BACK]

28. Brecht, Arbeitsjournal , 1:76 (24 December 1939). [BACK]

29. Werner Mittenzwei, Brechts Verhältnis zur Tradition (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1973), 133. [BACK]

30. Klaus Völker, Bertolt Brecht: Eine Biographie (Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag, 1976), 219. [BACK]

32. Völker, Bertolt Brecht , 304. [BACK]

33. Franco Fortini, "The Writers' Mandate and the End of Anti-Fascism," Screen 15, no. 1 (Spring 1974):41. The poem referred to is "Die Literatur wird durchforscht werden." [BACK]

34. Ibid. [BACK]

35. Colin MacCabe, "The Politics of Separation," Screen 16, no. 4 (1975-1976):51. [BACK]

36. Peter W. Jansen and Wolfram Schütte, eds., Herzog/Kluge/Straub (Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag, 1976), 209. [BACK]

37. All screenplay notes are given by shot number in the text and refer to the following translation: " History Lessons," Screen 17, no. 1 (1976):54-76. [BACK]

38. Walsh, " History Lessons : Brecht and Straub/Huillet," 65. [BACK]

39. Walsh, "Frontiers of Language," 21. [BACK]

40. Brecht, Arbeitsjournal , 1:18 (3 March 1938). [BACK]

41. Walsh, "Frontiers of Language," 23. [BACK]

42. Ibid. [BACK]

43. Ibid., 24. [BACK]

44. Ibid., 21. [BACK]

45. Brecht, Arbeitsjournal , 1:72 (7 December 1939). [BACK]

46. Walsh, "Frontiers of Language," 17. [BACK]

47. Walter Benjamin, Illuminations , ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken, 1978), 262. [BACK]

48. Walsh, "Frontiers of Language," 23. [BACK]

49. On Renoir and offscreen space, see Perez, "Modernist Cinema," 55. [BACK]

50. MacCabe, "Politics of Separation," 52. [BACK]

51. "Andi Engel Talks to Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet Is There Too," Enthusiasm 1 (December 1975):19. [BACK]

52. Walsh, "Frontiers of Language," 17. [BACK]

53. These two terms from 1970s film theory are cited in Rodowick, Crisis of Political Modernism , 281. [BACK]