3 p.m. Groups Ryan, Travis, Alexis, Rikki Kati, Kassam, Kolton, Yuwei Kristen, Ralitsa, Brandon Aksel, Ernesto, Leslie, An Esme, Gabriela, Raymond

4:30 p.m. Groups Yulissa, Dexter, William Mindy, Sarah, Thanawat, Julie Jason, John, Carmen, Samantha Maria, Matt, Keith, Shirley Natalie, Jessica, Siddharth, Meiling

Today’s Goals… Lecture Review and Film Discussion Small Group Discussion and Presentation – Mother Courage Comparing different “mediations” or re-presentations of The Thirty Years’ War

Group Discussion Explain why a consideration of medium, genre and point of view are important when looking at different representations of the Thirty Years’ War? What does it mean that the Theater of War promotes the agency of each individual as a “directing” or guiding intelligence? Explain how juxtaposing events in time or black/white-color shape meaning in the Theater of War?

How does Brecht himself “perform” his “political” theater in the HUAC Hearings and in East Berlin? To what end? “He was a very slippery man, who lived in times when a certain degree of slipperiness was necessary to survive” (Kushner) “That old fake!...If you answer badly you can’t be asked that much” (Barbara Brecht)

Streep’s “Essay”…(in the opening/ending scenes) An act of bravery is a thing that continues the carnage. What’s the final result…bones in the landscape. I’m the voice of dead people. I’m the interpreter between the audience who will hear it (in the language they will understand) and the author who wrote it years ago. How do these thoughts inform Streep’s understanding of her character Mother Courage? Her role as actor? Is she performing Brechtian Epic Theater? Does it matter? How is she (as human/as woman/as actor) “witnessing” war?

Identify and explain references to economic conditions in war Brecht Scene Analysis Identify and explain references to economic conditions in war How does a scene reflect how characters sell their labor? What kinds of things or ideas or commodities are exchanged? Bartered? Sold? What role does self-interest play? Connection between name/occupation? Is this scene a representation of a particular virtue (compassion, empathy, courage)? How do individual virtuous acts seem meaningless in the scene? How do irony or other Brechtian features operate in the scene to challenge us, as audience, to think and react? Identify specifics from the text (read a line of text, point to stage direction, etc.) and then explain HOW that “evidence” shows your claims?

Scene 1 p. 9 The Sergeant: Paperwork! Mother Courage: Paperwork? Swiss Cheese: She’s Mother Courage. The Sergeant: I never heard of her. Why’s she called ‘Courage’? Mother Courage: They called me Courage because I was scared of financial ruin, Sergeant, so I drove my wagon straight through the cannon fire at Riga, with fifty loaves of bread turning moldy – I didn’t see I had a choice. The Sergeant: Fascinating, now I know your life’s story, gimme your paperwork. Mother Courage: Here’s paper, all I possess. A prayer book I bought in Alt- Otting, I use the pages to wrap pickles … I have more papers if you want it.

Scene 3 p. 28 Mother Courage: Swiss Cheese: They made you paymaster because you’re honest, you’re not brave like your brother, they like it that you’re too feeble-minded to get your mind around the idea of stealing it. Which puts my mind at ease. Cash in the cash box and where do the woolies go? Swiss Cheese: Under my mattress, Mama, except when I’m wearing ‘em.

Group One: pp. 7- top of 9 Group Two: pp. 22-24 (2/3 down) Identify and explain references to economic conditions in war How does a scene reflect how characters sell their labor? What kinds of things or ideas or commodities are exchanged? Bartered? Sold? What role does self-interest play? Connection between name/occupation? Is this scene a representation of a particular virtue (compassion, empathy, courage)? How do individual virtuous acts seem meaningless in the scene? How do irony or other Brechtian features operate in the scene to challenge us, as audience, to think and react? Identify specifics from the text (read a line of text, point to stage direction, etc.) and then explain HOW that “evidence” shows your claims? Group One: pp. 7- top of 9 Group Two: pp. 22-24 (2/3 down) Group Three: pp. 32-34 Group Four: pp.55 (Courage sings) – 57 Group Five: pp.58-60

Translation According to the Writer’s Handbook, translation means to “carry something across different languages” (21). It is an interpretive process that must account for (in part): Language in a specific context, choosing between synonyms and idiomatic expressions We also know that sometimes a translator makes a choice to omit details from or to make additions to the original to remain true to form OR content but not always both These choices lead to changes to or differences in meaning

All Group Question According to Professor Newman, what are some translation choices made by Tony Kushner? How do these decisions change or add meaning to Mother Courage?

Intertextuality (from latin intertexto) means to intermingle or to weave together. We can understand intertextuality as occurring when one text references another text or genre or tradition. It also occurs when two or more texts are in dialogue with one another so that one text’s meaning is shaped or challenged or problematized by another.

The first publication of von Guericke's account ("from the manuscript") in 1860 contained the following introduction by the editor. What impact does this endorsement have? Can this short text be understood as an intertext? I want to give the reader, at the close of this preface, still another word of recommendation for this little book which I hereby place in his hands, I consider thoroughly unnecessary. Guericke was an eyewitness of the events that he depicts; he was, by virtue of his official position as councilor and Bauherr of the city, very precisely informed about the events and, moreover, a man of such acknowledged honorableness that any intentional distortion of the truth in his story in the slightest is out of the question.

Blog 3 Due by Sunday, 8th by midnight (50 pts WP) Blog about what story of the Thirty Years' War is re-presented in the two translations of the Goericke "witness" account we read and discussed in class. In your blog consider how the choices made by the translations "mediate" this event (perhaps similarly to an extent or differently in other ways).  What kinds of insight into the effects or "costs" (literal/figurative) of the Thirty Years' War are underscored or revealed through translation choices (remember that translation choices include omission of details)?  How does each translation position Guericke differently (in terms of his stakes in witnessing the event)? Note: Do some research and look at or read other accounts or depictions of the Thirty Years' war and include reference to these in your blog.  As always, you are encouraged to incorporate visual imagery or video and hyperlinks into your blogs as is appropriate to conveying your intended message.

Group Discussion and Presentation Group 1: Look at the two translations of the Gryphius Sonnet in the CR. Group 2: Look at the two translations of the Goericke witness account. In your discussion be sure to think about what some of his contexts are for offering this witness account (What is at stake for him economically, for his position in society? What role might self-interest play?) Group 3: Look at the“Sack of Magdeburg 1631” by Johann Phillip Abelin, 1654. How does this visual text enter into a dialogue with or invoke Goericke’s witness account, with war in general, with other texts/events of Thirty Years’ War? Group 4: Given the “witness” account of a specific event, how does Theater of War “perform” or “mediate” a similar or different story of war? In what ways do these texts enter into a dialogue with one another? Group 5: Given the “witness” account of a specific event, how does the poetry by Andreas Gryphius “perform” or “mediate” a similar or different story of war?