(Post)-Brecht Theatre: Bertolt Brecht's «The Horatians and the Curiatians» and Heiner Müller's «The Horatian» as Lehrstück-Dramaturgy

The relevance of the article is due to the need for a theoretical and literary study of the genre and poetological features of the post-Brecht theater through a comparative analysis of the play «The Horatians and The Curiatians» (1934/35) by Bertolt Brecht and «The Horatian» (1968) by Heiner Müller. To achieve this goal, the following research methods were used: cultural-historical, comparative-historical, structural-semantic, descriptive, literary analysis and synthesis. Scientific novelty. The process of development and modification of the Lehrstück genre in the playwright Heiner Müller on the material of the play «The Horatian» is investigated. Conclusions. The plot of the plays of German playwrights refers to the book «Ab urbe condita» by the ancient Roman historian Titus Livius and presents the author’s interpretation of the war between the cities of Rome and Alba Longa. The principle of substitution was also adopted from the Roman original source, when one of their representatives represented whole armies. Based on the identified general typological features of the plays of Brecht and Müller, a conclusion is drawn about the influence of Brecht’s dramaturgy, in particular the Lehrstück genre, in the post-Brecht period. A comparative literary analysis of the play «The Horatians and The Curiatians» by Bertolt Brecht and the play «The Horatian» by Heiner Müller allowed to distinguish the following typological features of the Lehrstück genre that are characteristic of both plays: the plays are a training exercise (learning play), preparing for the activity in the political and social sphere of players according to the author’s intention and stage implementation; the high degree of abstraction and styling of the image; use of Chinese and Japanese theater art; plays involve self-exploration in play and play; players must exchange roles during the production; the plays were written not for professional, but for amateur production.