MULTIMEDIA FRAMING OF BRECHTIAN CHIMERISM

Abstract

Brecht's epic theater in its artistic diversity includes works that, having received multimedia interpretation, not only do not lose their artistic and aesthetic significance but also enhance it. This refers to B. Brecht's use of photo-epigrams from "Kriegsfibel", which became emblems of war. "Kriegsfibel" is the title of the second part of the great oratorio "Deutsches Miserere", which emerged as a result of Bertolt Brecht's creative collaboration with the composer Paul Dessau. Twenty-nine photo-epigrams formed the basis of the concert, which Brecht called "Deutsches Miserere" – "the great repentance of the German people". In this article, we examine the basic principles of the construction of "Deutsches Miserere", focusing on the functional features of the alienation effect in the work through multimedia and intermedia means. The focus lies on the interconnection and combination of different types of art: fiction, photography, cinematography, and music aimed at creating an original author's language. The article claims that the unifying principle that connects them is chimerism, which contributes to the effect of alienation and serves to provocatively and paradoxically comprehend and embody a certain theme or idea. In the triad of "principle – technique – medium", the leading artistic principle is the effect of alienation, one of the techniques of artistic transformation of reality is chimerism, and the medium is multimedia. The introduction of multimedia amplifies the alienation effect, and this allows us to consider the interaction of chimerism with intermedial means of expression, namely, it makes intramediality the sphere of existence of chimerism.