Diagnosing Bertolt Brecht.

摘要

Andy Warhol suffered from it as a child. It is claimed that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had it, too. We now have good reason to believe that the syndrome of rheumatic fever attacked the weak and sickly body of another artistic icon, the great German playwright and author of the Threepenny Opera Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), during his childhood in Augsburg, Germany. Since Brecht's death in communist East Berlin, the Brecht publishing industry has explored virtually every angle on Brecht, from his dramatic theories to his ruthlessly exploitative macho behaviour. He posed with boxers and slept with countless actresses and female collaborators. Strangely enough, critics have had little to say about Brecht's body, even though Brecht, who studied medicine for a while, wrote endlessly about his enigmatic and deeply troubling organism, particularly his heart.