Stories from Mr. Keuner
The stories from Mr Keuner , also known as the stories from Mr K. , are parables by Bertolt Brecht .
Emergence
They were created over a period of more than 30 years, from the year he married Helene Weigel (1926), during Brecht's time in exile until his death (1956). Brecht wrote the first of these stories in 1926 in connection with the work on the play Fatzer . In 1948 Brecht's calendar stories were published, which contain 39 Keuner stories. After Brecht's death, more stories were published in other publications. In Wangen-Brüttisellen in the canton of Zurich , the estate of Renata Mertens-Bertozzi, who died in 2000, contained 15 previously unknown Keuner stories, which were included in the so-called “Zurich version” published by Suhrkamp Verlag . The edition contains all 58 stories that were found in the so-called “Zurich Folder”. The Keuner stories were always written in connection with Brecht's other works. They appeared in the “Attempts” series together with other experimental texts, scenes from dramas and poems. Initially seven issues appeared, the eighth could no longer be printed in 1933.
Currently (2008) 121 individual texts are assigned to the Keuner complex.
content
In the stories of Mr. Keuner, the main character is Mr. Keuner, who is asked questions by other people or gives explanations. He always replies with wisdom that could also come from Brecht. Thus, these stories are an instrument for Brecht to express his own opinions and views. The Keuner stories deal with subjects that keep recurring, in the stories of Mr. K. but also in other works by Brecht. Mr. Keuner deals with typical Brecht motifs such as the following:
- Image of women
- Marxism
- Virtues of man
- nature
All of these motifs are central to Brecht's work and are also the ones with which Brecht was most concerned.
shape
The stories from Mr. Keuner are short excerpts from Mr. K's life, which are assigned to the parables, as the stories are also intended to stimulate thought. The length of the individual stories is striking as they vary between 2 and approx. 65 lines.
Interpretation / interpretation
Since Mr. Keuner's stories consist of individual, independent stories, it is difficult to create a general interpretation. Rather, one can interpret the individual stories separately and they do not have to be seen in the context of other Keuner stories. However, Mr K's stories reflect Brecht's personal opinions and political views. That is why Mr K. is often interpreted as a reflection of Brecht.
Mr. Keuner
The character was initially involved in the play as an acting person and, in the course of Brecht's adaptations, increasingly assumed the role of the critical commentator (in the sense of epic theater ). Mr. Keuner is portrayed as a thinker who shows little empathy with other people and therefore seems rather unsympathetic. He is helpful as long as no special sacrifice is required of him. He judges the virtues people cherish as good because they are useful, not because of any feelings. Otherwise, Mr. K. does not have many character traits, because because the stories actually have no plot, only Keuner's statements can be assessed. Mr. Keuner is seen as the mirror image of Brecht.
Literary criticism
The literary criticism took no notice of the Keuner stories during this time. Only Walter Benjamin wrote about it. He also explained the origin of the name with reference to Brecht from “none” (in the dialect of Brecht's hometown Augsburg, “none” is pronounced as “koiner”), conceived as a characterless figure who only appears as a thinking mediator.
reception
- Stories from Mr. Keuner has been added to the ZEIT library of 100 books .
expenditure
- Bertolt Brecht: Stories from Mr. Keuner. The wounded Socrates , ill. by HE Köhler, Hanover: Fackelträger Verlag 1959
- Bertolt Brecht: Stories from Mr. Keuner . Suhrkamp Verlag 1972, 1977, ISBN 3-518-06516-5 (Suhrkamp Taschenbuch 16, 128 pages) (87 stories)
- Bertolt Brecht: Stories from Mr. Keuner . Book Guild Gutenberg 1984, 1995, ISBN 3-7632-2868-3 (Die Kleine Reihe, 128 pages) (87 stories)
- Bertolt Brecht: Stories from Mr. Keuner . Suhrkamp Verlag 2003, ISBN 978-3-518-22366-6 (Library Suhrkamp 1366, 157 pages)
- Bertolt Brecht: Stories from Mr. Keuner - Zurich version . Suhrkamp Verlag 2004, ISBN 978-3-518-41660-0 (128 pages)
- Bertolt Brecht: Stories from Mr. Keuner . Suhrkamp Verlag 2012, ISBN 978-3-518-18846-0 (BasisBibliothek 46, 217 pages) (121 stories)
- Bertolt Brecht: Calendar Stories . Suhrkamp Verlag 2013, ISBN 978-3-518-18931-3 (BasisBibliothek 131, 196 pages)
literature
- Dieter Wöhrle: Bertolt Brecht, stories from Mr. Keuner. Basics and thoughts on understanding narrative literature. Diesterweg Verlag, Frankfurt 1989, ISBN 3-425-06055-4
- Sonia Arribas: The subject Mr. Keuner: on the way to a Brechtian ethics , in: Das Argument , 2011, no. 4, pp. 527-538
Audio book
- Manfred Krug reads Bertolt Brecht, stories from Mr. Keuner: reading . Production manager Sigried Wesener. Deutschlandradio Kultur. Der Audio-Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89813-406-7 (CD). New edition 2012.