# Refunctioning

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**Refunctioning** ([German](/source/German_language): *Umfunktionierung*) is a core strategy of the [aesthetic](/source/Marxist_aesthetics) developed by the [German](/source/Germany) [modernist](/source/Modernism) [theatre practitioner](/source/Theatre_practitioner) [Bertolt Brecht](/source/Bertolt_Brecht).

"Brecht wanted his theatre to intervene in the process of shaping society," Robert Leach explains, so in his work:

[the] duality of form and content was replaced (to over-schematise briefly) by a triad of *content* (better described in Brecht's case by the formalist term "material"), *form* (again the formalist term "technique" is more useful here) and *function*. In Brecht's dramatic form, these three constantly clash but never properly coalesce to compose a rounded whole.[1]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-leach_1-0)** Leach (1994, 130).

## Sources

- Brecht, Bertolt. 1964. *Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic*. Ed. and trans. John Willett. British edition. London: Methuen. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-413-38800-X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-413-38800-X). USA edition. New York: Hill and Wang. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-8090-3100-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-8090-3100-0).

- Brecht, Bertolt. 1965. *[The Messingkauf Dialogues](/source/Messingkauf_Dialogues)*. Trans. John Willett. Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry, Prose Ser. London: Methuen, 1985. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-413-38890-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-413-38890-5).

- Leach, Robert. 1994. "*Mother Courage and Her Children*". In Thomson and Sacks (1994, 128–138).

- Thomson, Peter and Glendyr Sacks, eds. 1994. *The Cambridge Companion to Brecht*. Cambridge Companions to Literature Ser. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-521-41446-6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-521-41446-6).

- Tian, Min. 2012. *Mei Lanfang and the Twentieth Century International Stage: Chinese Theatre Placed and Displaced*. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

v t e Bertolt Brecht Dramatic works Baal Drums in the Night A Wedding Driving Out a Devil Mysteries of a Barbershop In the Jungle of Cities Edward II Man Equals Man Downfall of the Egotist Johann Fatzer The Elephant Calf Little Mahagonny The Threepenny Opera The Flight Across the Ocean The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent Happy End Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny Der Jasager / Der Neinsager The Decision Saint Joan of the Stockyards The Exception and the Rule The Mother Kuhle Wampe The Seven Deadly Sins Round Heads and Pointed Heads The Horatians and the Curiatians Fear and Misery of the Third Reich Señora Carrar's Rifles Life of Galileo How Much Is Your Iron? Dansen Mother Courage and Her Children The Trial of Lucullus Mr Puntila and His Man Matti The Good Person of Szechwan The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Hangmen Also Die! The Visions of Simone Machard The Duchess of Malfi Schweyk in the Second World War The Caucasian Chalk Circle Antigone The Days of the Commune The Tutor Die Verurteilung des Lukullus Report from Herrnburg Coriolanus The Trial of Joan of Arc at Rouen, 1431 Turandot Don Juan Trumpets and Drums Poems, songs "Reminiscence of Marie A." "Alabama Song" "Pirate Jenny" "What Keeps Mankind Alive?" "Solidaritätslied" "Einheitsfrontlied" "Kinderhymne" "Die Lösung" "Und was bekam des Soldaten Weib?" Theories and techniques Epic theatre Lehrstücke Non-Aristotelian drama Complex seeing Defamiliarization Demonstration Fabel Gestus Historicization Interruptions Not / But Refunctioning Separation of the elements Messingkauf Dialogues The Modern Theatre Is the Epic Theatre A Short Organum for the Theatre Street scene Prizes Bertolt-Brecht-Literaturpreis Category

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