About the Epic Theatre and the Gestus

Abstract

The most important characteristic of Bertolt Brecht's epic theatre is that it aims to enable the audience to have a critical perspective. To this end, the characters and the social context within which they are in are supposed to be presented through specific techniques. Alienation effect and gestus are the two important ones amongst these techniques. Although the literature on 'alienation' is abundant in terms of both the number of studies and variety of approaches to the concept, we cannot say the same for the literature on 'gestus'. There may be two reasons for that: firstly, in his theoretical writings, Brecht does not elaborate on 'gestus' except simple definitions. Secondly, the concept may be considered as related to the practice rather than being an object of theoretical abstraction. This study aims 'rethinking' on the concept of 'gestus' rather than filling the gaps in the literature.