“Abolishing Aesthetics”: Gestus in Brecht’s Arturo Ui

Abstract

This essay takes up Brecht’s 1941 play, Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui [The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui] and investigates the question of whether or not the play mitigates against “aestheticizing” the figure of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. In “Commitment,” Adorno is highly skeptical of the effectiveness (implying also, appropriateness) of portraying Hitler’s rise in a comical manner. The piece explores how the play may be considered in ways other than as a play which, as Adorno describes, “takes the teeth out of fascism.” A guiding principle is Brecht’s view of Gestus as a collection of contradictions that suspends the movement of a dialectic. Gestus offers a way to consider the specificity of Brecht’s various theories on art, including epic theatre, parody, and the parable, among others.

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