Todd Cronan - Red Aesthetics: Rodchenko, Brecht, Eisenstein

Red Aesthetics

Cultural Studies and Marxism

Series Editor: Jaafar Aksikas, Columbia College Chicago

The Cultural Studies and Marxism series is a timely and valuable contribution to the larger field of contemporary cultural studies. The global capitalist crisis of the twenty-first century has prompted renewed interest in critical political economy and Marxist theory. At the same time, publishing institutions committed to a robust articulation between cultural studies, critical political economy, and Marxism are almost non-existent. The series is dedicated to addressing this situation by highlighting and making available important (and emergent) scholarship at the intersection of these three fields.

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Todd Cronan, Red Aesthetics: Rodchenko, Brecht, Eisenstein

You can either be a Communist or a capitalist. There cant be any middle ground here.

Aleksandr Rodchenko (1925)

The more clearly class struggle is recognized as the dominant factor in the causal nexus, the more fundamentally the old bourgeois technique of empathy fails.

Bertolt Brecht (1938)

Always proceeding from only one principledestruction of the indefinite and neutral, existing in itself... and its reassembly in accordance with the idea dictated by... our ideology, our outlook.

Sergei Eisenstein (1948)

The following abbreviations are used throughout the text:

AP Bertolt Brecht, Brecht on Art and Politics, ed. Tom Kuhn and Steve Giles, trans. Laura Bradley, Steve Giles and Tom Kuhn (London: Methuen, 2003)

BP Bertolt Brecht, Brecht on Performance: Messingkauf and Modelbooks, ed. Tom Kuhn, Steve Giles and Marc Silberman, trans. Charlotte Ryland, Romy Fursland, Steve Giles, Tom Kuhn and John Willett (London: Bloomsbury, 2014)

BS Beyond the Stars: The Memoirs of Sergei Eisenstein, ed. Richard Taylor, trans. William Powell (London: BFI Publishing, 1995)

BT Bertolt Brecht, Brecht on Theatre, ed. Marc Silberman, Steve Giles and Tom Kuhn (London: Bloomsbury, 2015)

CF Hanns Eisler and Theodor Adorno, Composing for the Films (New York: Oxford University Press, 1947)

CP Bertolt Brecht, Collected Plays: Four, ed. Tom Kuhn and John Willett, trans. Tom Kuhn (London: Methuen, 2001)

EC The Eisenstein Collection, ed. Richard Taylor (Oxford: Seagull Books, 2006)

EF Aleksandr Rodchenko: Experiments for the Future: Diaries, Essays, Letters, and Other Writings, ed. Alexander N. Lavrentiev, trans. Jamey Gambrell (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2005)

FR Bertolt Brecht, Brecht on Film and Radio, ed. and trans. Marc Silberman (London: Methuen, 2000)

J Bertolt Brecht, Journals, 19341955, ed. John Willett, trans. Hugh Rorrison (New York: Routledge, 1993)

MC Brecht, Music and Culture: Hanns Eisler in Conversation with Hans Bunge, ed. and trans. Sabine Berendse and Paul Clements (London: Bloomsbury, 2014)

MT Bertolt Brecht, Bertolt Brechts Me-Ti: Book of Interventions in the Flow of Things, ed. and trans. Anthony Tatlow (London: Bloomsbury, 2016)

SW Sergei Eisenstein, Selected Works, three volumes, edited by Richard Taylor, trans. William Powell (London: IB Tauris, 2010)

Red Aesthetics

Rodchenko, Brecht, Eisenstein

Todd Cronan

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Published by Rowman & Littlefield

An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

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Copyright 2022 by Todd Cronan

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Cronan, Todd, author.

Title: Red aesthetics : Rodchenko, Brecht, Eisenstein / Todd Cronan.

Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2022] |

Series: Cultural studies and Marxism | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021037891 (print) | LCCN 2021037892 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538147092 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538147122 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: AestheticsPolitical aspectsHistory20th century. | Communist aesthetics. | Rodchenko, Aleksandr Mikhalovich, 18911956Aesthetics. | Brecht, Bertolt, 18981956Aesthetics. | Eisenstein, Sergei, 18981948Aesthetics.

Classification: LCC BH301.P64 C76 2022 (print) | LCC BH301.P64 (ebook) | DDC 111/.85dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021037891

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021037892

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Sergei Eisenstein, abstract drawing of a barricade from the essay Yermolova.

Sergei Eisenstein, still from Maguey, Qu Viva Mxico!

Sergei Eisenstein, still from Maguey, Qu Viva Mxico!

Sergei Eisenstein, still from Maguey, Qu Viva Mxico!

Aleksandr Rodchenko, The Battleship Potemkin, 1925.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, from a series on a Lumber Mill in Vakhtan, 1930.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Workers, 1933 from White Sea-Baltic Canal series.

Andr Kertsz, Vert Galant on a Wintery Day, c. 1929.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Courtyard, c. 19281930.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Courtyard, c. 19281930.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Courtyard, c. 19281930.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Courtyard, c. 19281930.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Courtyard, c. 19281930.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Courtyard, c. 19281930.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Courtyard, c. 19281930.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Cover of the book To the Living Ilich, 1924.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Dissolving the Surface, 1920.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Street, 1930.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Portrait of Mother, 1924.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Morning Wash, 1932.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, On the Horizontal Bar, 1935.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Pines, 1933.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Portrait of Mayakovsky (Standing), 1924.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Ship Timber, 1927.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Cigarette Seller on Strastnaya Square, 1927 from Street Trade series.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Morning Edition or Breakfast with a Freshly-Printed Newspaper (Stepanova at the Table), 1928 from 30 Days series.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Electrician on a Pole, 1929 from Culture Park series.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Radio Listener, 1927.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Lunch, 1929 from Factory Canteen series.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Ice-cream on the Beach, 1926.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Desk, 1924.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Stepanova at Her Desk, 1924.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Stepanova Behind Her Desk, 1927.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Lock Gates, 1933 from White Sea-Baltic Canal series.

Albert Renger-Patzsch, Fagus-werk, Alfeld, c. 1929.

Franz Marc, Tower of Blue Horses, 1913. Whereabouts unknown.

Chinese painting, later 19th century (?), artist unknown. Later nineteenth century? In situ photograph from the home of Karin Michaelis, Copenhagen, Denmark.