Annual volume, this time featuring special sections on Brecht's dramatic fragments and on comedy in post-Brechtian theater, along with a variety of other contributions. Published for the International Brecht Society, the Brecht Yearbook is the central scholarly forum for discussion of Brecht's life and work and of topics of particular interest to him, especially the politics of literatureand of theater in a global context. It embraces a wide variety of perspectives and approaches and, like Brecht himself, is committed to the use value of literature, theater, and theory. Volume 44 features the first publication of Günter Kunert's translation of Edgar Lee Masters's poem "The Hill" with handwritten annotations by Brecht. A special section, "Brecht's Dramatic Fragments," includes essays on the unresolved tension between individual and collectivist resistance in Fatzer, the fragmentary aesthetic of Fleischhacker, and the first English translation and performance of the David fragments. The next section, "Pure Joke: The Comedy of Theater since Brecht," features articles on the poetics of interruption in the epilogue to The Good Person of Szechwan, Heiner Müller's Hamletmachine as theater of affirmation, a reassessment of the harlequin and the chorus in post-Brechtian performance, and the performative gestures of quotation in contemporary reality-satire. The volume also includes essays on capitalist guilt and debt in The Debts of Mister Julius Caesar, Heiner Müller's "Keuneresque" interview strategies, the 1962 world premiere of The Threepenny Opera in Yiddish, and Brecht's reception of Mao Tse-tung in two of his poems. Contributors include Gerrit-Jan Berendse, André Fischer, Phoebe von Held, Nicholas E. Johnson, Christian Kirchmeier, Günter Kunert, Nikolaus Müller-Schöll, Stephan Pabst, Corina L. Petrescu, David Shepherd, Katrin Trüstedt, Uwe Wirth, Burkhardt Wolf, and Xue Song. Editor Markus Wessendorf is aProfessor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa in Honolulu.

Alongside the usual wide-ranging lineup of research articles, volume 41 features an interview with Berliner Ensemble actor Annemone Haase and an extensive special section on teaching Brecht. Now published for the International Brecht Society by Camden House, the Brecht Yearbook is the central scholarly forum for discussion of Bertolt Brecht's life and work and of topics of particular interest to Brecht, especially the politics of literature and of theater in a global context. It includes a wide variety of perspectives and approaches, and, like Brecht himself, is committed to the concept of the use value of literature, theater, and theory. Volume 41 features an interview with longtime Berliner Ensemble actor Annemone Haase by Margaret Setje-Eilers. A special section on teaching Brecht, guest-edited by Per Urlaub and Kristopher Imbrigotta, includes articles on creative appropriation in the foreign-language classroom (Caroline Weist), satire in Arturo Ui and The Great Dictator (Ari Linden), performative discussion (Cohen Ambrose), Brecht for theater majors (Daniel Smith), teaching performance studies with the Lehrstück model (Ian Maxwell), Verfremdung and ethics (Elena Pnevmonidou), Brecht on the college stage (Julie Klassen and Ruth Weiner), and methods of teaching Brechtian Stückschreiben (Gerd Koch). Other research articles focus on Harry Smith's Mahagonny (Marc Silberman), inhabiting empathy in the contemporary piece Temping (James Ball), Brecht's appropriation of Kurt Lewin's psychology (Ines Langemeyer), and Brecht's collaborations with women, both across his career (Helen Fehervary) and in exile in Skovsbostrand (Katherine Hollander). Editor Theodore F. Rippey is Associate Professor of German at Bowling Green State University.

Das Lessing Yearbook/Jahrbuch 2020 enthält Beiträge zu Lessings Aristoteles-Lektüre, zum Drama "Philotas" im Kontext des Siebenjährigen Krieges, zum Spiel-Begriff und zur Toleranz-Thematik in "Nathan der Weise", zu Lessings nachgelassenen Blättern zu "Nathan" und zur Rezeption von Lessings Dramen in Amsterdam. Außerdem enthält der Band Aufsätze zur Gefühlsthematik in Joachim Wilhelm von Brawes Drama "Der Freygeist", zur Rolle des Apostels Thomas in Klopstocks "Messias" und zur kognitiven Narratologie in Karl Philipp Moritz "Reisen eines Deutschen in England". Abschließend bietet der Band einen Tagungsbericht zur digitalen Erarbeitung der Texte Lessings.