Adventurers and Cosmonauts: Dürrenmatt's Parody of Brecht?

ADVENTURERS AND COSMONAUTS: DÜRRENMATTS PARODY OF BRECHT? Hart L. Wegner The relationship between Dürrenmatt and Brecht is of considerable interest, not only for the individual merits of the writers involved, but also because of the often problematical relationship between teacher and student, or master and acolyte. Sooner or later each student or son has to sever the ties or stay forever in Zeus's thigh. Several perceptive essays have been written on Dürrenmatt's relation to Brecht, foremost among them Hans Mayer's "Dürrenmatt und Brecht oder die Zurücknahme."1 Dürrenmatt's own remarks on this subject are rather inconclusive. To be linked to Brecht as a post-Brechtian playwright is as meaningful (or usually as meaningless) as the customary linkage established by critics of the nineteenth century between writers of that epoch and Goethe. Emil Staiger, for example, has examined the relationships of contemporary writers to their precursors (and Brecht is already a "precursor" only fourteen years after his death). Staiger recognizes the afemina of contemporary literary artists, yet regrets the fact that modern authors so often resort to parody in order to reduce the great writers of the past to relative harmlessness. As he puts it: Wir dürfen ihnen unsere Achtung und Bewunderung nicht versagen, selbst dann nicht, wenn sie, um sich ihr schweres Geschäft zu erleichtern, die grossen Meister der vergangenen Zeit schmähen und ihre Werke kritisch oder, was noch bedenklicher ist, in Parodien, wie sie an der Tagesordnung sind, unschädlich machen zu müssen glauben."2 Staiger appears to feel that the modern writer, or any writer for that matter, resorts to parody because he feels threatened. Parody does not necessarily produce this veritable emasculation, but if one follows Staiger's argumentation , it is easy to see how parody could be used and is used to render a writer of the past innocuous, not for the reading public as a whole, but for the writer himself, who may feel trapped or endangered through a literary father-son relationship. Dürrenmatt's Die Physiker reflects Brecht's Leben des Galilei in subject matter and title. Brecht's Galileo faces the choice of either intellectual and physical freedom (in Venice) or the freedom to devote his time to research, unencumbered by financial worries (in Florence). Brecht himself faced this dilemma between East and West. Möbius, the physicist/hero of Diir1HaDs Mayer, "Dürrenmatt und Brecht oder die Zurücknahme," in Der unbequeme Dünenmatt (Basel und Stuttgart, 1962), pp. 97-116. 2EmU Staiger, "Die Kunst in der Fremde der Gegenwart," in Geist und Zeitgeist (Zürich, 1964), p. 54. 10 Dürrenmatt's Parody of Brecht11 renmatt's play, is confronted by similar choices offered by the agents of the big powers. He can choose to work in one unspecified place virtually as a prisoner, or in another, likewise unspecified, where the climate is murderous , but the air-conditioning excellent—or he can choose safety for himself and the whole human race. When Möbius tries to prove his insanity—by means other than murder—he sings a song. He sings wildly, becoming more and more agitated, the "Song of Solomon to be sung to the Cosmonauts ." To have the hero of a Dürrenmatt play sing is a link to Brecht, for Dürrenmatt normally does not feel Brecht's compulsion to arrest the dramatic action by such a device. The song itself is reminiscent of Brecht's plays; its lyrical quality recalls Brecht's Hauspostille and the poetry of the ten years in Brecht's creative life that led up to its publication when he wrote the three great early plays, Baal, Trommeln in der Nacht, and Im Dickicht der Städte. Furthermore, Solomon was not only a frequent guest in the insane asylum of the physicists, where he is said to have dictated the theories of Möbius, but he appeared often in Brecht's works, usually pointing out the folly of human wisdom. Moreover, Brecht wrote a number of "Psalms" evoking the Psalms of Solomon. They are scattered through his lyrical works and can also be found in the Dreigroschenoper, where Jenny sings...