Use of alienation technique in The Good Woman of Setzuan Tanya Garg College

“Epic theatre’s basic effort is to make familiar strange, show the world as alterable, hold events at a temporal distance and as Bretch writes, reveal the human being as “as the sum of all circumstances”.”Alisa Solman

In response to the political upheaval in Europe, the mid 20th century saw an emergence in various theatrical movements which provided a critical commentary on the social and political scenario of the time and challenged the conventional Aristotelian theatre. One such movement was Epic Theatre which was popularized by Bertol Brecht. The content of Epic theatre was political and the playwright intended to induce critical thinking in the audience rather than making them emotionally connected to the characters. This aim was accomplished by using the technique of alienation or defamiliarization.

Through this movement, the audience was “defamiliarized” to the Aristotelian theatre which believed in classical unities, presence of the fourth wall, catharsis, etc. Hence, familiar notions of the theatre were presented as strange so that the audience develop acceptance of the contradictions and they can look beyond it.

Alienation or defamiliarization in literal sense refers to the feeling of estrangement. In Epic theatre,...