Mediations: Essays on Brecht, Beckett, and the Media

First published in 1980, Mediations supplements, extends, and deepens Martin Esslin’s earlier writings on Samuel Beckett and Bertolt Brecht. In the third section of this collection of essays, Esslin discusses the mass media as dramatic art and their effects – radio as a medium for drama; television’s insatiable appetite for artistic skills, its commercials, and its series, which he labels modern folk epics. Intimately acquainted with the cultural implications of several languages and ideologies and with the possibility for distortion inherent in translating them, Esslin’s Mediations gathers together decades of his rich experience and reflections on cross linguistic and artistic boundaries, as well as theatre. This book will be of interest to students of literature, drama, and media studies.