Historification

Historification means questioning the present through the past. Brecht defined historification as a technique that challenges the dominant versions of history, as he believed that history is written by the conquers or ruling classes. Historification frames the events for the spectators and helps to stop them being so involved in the dramatic action. It is rather like a suspense thriller and the spectators should be asking why the character did this rather than what will happen next.

When rehearsing the play you will need to explore how Brecht:

Distanced contemporary issues by placing them in a different historical period
Showed differences between the past and present as evidenced by some type of change
Showed similarities between the past and present as evidenced by some type of change
Showed that history serves some purpose (Mumford, 2009) .

Activities for exploring historification could be:

In pairs tell each other the story of Eilif's so called bravery as if you have seen it live, then as if you had seen it on Youtube? What is the difference in the behaviour of the characters? How is history represented?
Form six groups, one for Mother Courage, one for Swiss Cheese, one for Kattrin, one for the Peasants, one for the Commander, and one for the Recruiting Officer. Demonstrate to each other how you would create this character because of their history and then examine the different approaches by each student.
In groups explore where you think there could be banners or captions in a scene. Discuss how this creates the historification effect and how it could be done when the play is staged today.

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References and credits

Mumford, M. (2009). Bertolt Brecht - Routledge Performance Practitioners. London: Routledge.

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