Chapter 3, Hegel and Brecht: The Character as Subject or the Character as Object?, Catharsis and Repose, or Knowledge and Action? through Empathy or Osmosis Summary and Analysis

In "Catharsis and Repose, or Knowledge and Action?", Boal contrasts Hegel and Aristotle's idea that the clash of emotions in drama leads to catharsis, purging antiestablishment ideas, and ends in a calm repose for the audience with Brecht's Marxist idea that the audience gains knowledge through the drama, which stirs the audience to action, to transform the world. Brecht said that theater must be performed for the workers, the victims of social inequity who will change society. Boal says the supposedly Aristotelian play "Señora Carrar's Rifles" is actually not, since the main character is...