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.

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.

3. Class, Die politische Ästhetik , 137.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

9. Harvey, "Whose Brecht?" 56.

10. Martin Walsh, "Frontiers of Language," 21.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

17. Ibid., 113.

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

19. Ibid., 50.

20. Ibid., 217.

21. Ibid., 232.

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

23. Brecht, Geschäfte , 208.

24. Ibid., 211-212.

25. Walsh, "Frontiers of Language," 21.

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

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

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

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

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

31. Brecht, Arbeitsjournal , 1:16 (25 July 1938).

32. Völker, Bertolt Brecht , 304.

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."

34. Ibid.

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

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

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.

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

39. Walsh, "Frontiers of Language," 21.

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

41. Walsh, "Frontiers of Language," 23.

42. Ibid.

43. Ibid., 24.

44. Ibid., 21.

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

46. Walsh, "Frontiers of Language," 17.

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

48. Walsh, "Frontiers of Language," 23.

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

50. MacCabe, "Politics of Separation," 52.

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

52. Walsh, "Frontiers of Language," 17.

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