Tracing The Brechtian Influence in Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman
Hajir Nasir Turki
English Department - College of Education For Women-Tikrit University
Hamdi Hameed Al-Douri
English Department - College of Education for Women-Tikrit University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25130/jls.5.1.1
Keywords: Amiri, Baraka, Dutchman, Bertotld Brecht, Brechtian techniques
Abstract
Dutchman attracts the attention of the audience more than Amiri Baraka’s other playswhich exce ptionally consolidates the sturdy awareness and the theatrical development. Baraka has been influenced by the political and social attitudes of the Brechtian theatre which have influenced the theatre of the whole world. Brecht is a fundamental figure in recent times and the works of theatre return to his influence and his achievements. Many American playwrights follow his techniques in one way or other ways and appropriately Baraka’s Dutchman illustrates the Brechtian upshots on the Afro-American stage. The journey of Clay and Lula is pointed to be a lesson for the spectators and the readers in employing several Brechtian elements and techniques to expose the current issues of the 1960s of American life. It is paralleled to the past periods by reconditioning the traditional myth of The Flying Dutchman of the seventeenth century as a symbol of the notion of slavery and degradation of the blacks from that time till the recent days of Baraka. Critics have identified Baraka’s Dutchman as a political play that emphasises social injustice to arouse social change using the Brechtian way of evolving society.
