From Baal to Keuner / The -Second Optimism- Of Bertolt Brecht

The author attempts to demonstrate a dialectic development in Brecht's work, form the self-destructive nihilism of the early work, which finds its culmination in the opera -Mahagonny-, through the crisis of identity in the early -Lehrstucke-, which shows itself, above all, in the conflict between Baal, the -alter ego- of the younger Brecht, and Keuner, who fulfils a similar function in the later work, to the -second optimism- of the last plays and poems."