Karl-Heinz Zander Libri

Text des Druckes von 1587. Kritische Ausgabe. Hrsg.: Füssel, Stephan; Kreutzer, Hans Joachim.

Brecht's "Saint Joan of the Stockyards" explores the rampant speculation in meat and livestock against the backdrop of a crisis of overproduction. Set in the stockyards and meat market of Chicago, the play reveals the contradictions of society exacerbated by advanced capitalism. Johanna Dark, a Salvation Army soldier, witnesses the plight of workers excluded and starving due to the meat factories. In her quest to understand the reasons behind their exclusion, she encounters the meat king, Pierpont Mauler, who unsuccessfully tries to win her over to his cause. Ultimately, Johanna, also rejected by the poor, meets her demise in the stockyards. The play makes the "entangled processes" transparent, illustrating their underlying laws and using them as a means to drive the events forward.

Una donna di facili costumi, ma non di poche virtù, che visse intensamente tra Londra e la Virginia, «fu cinque volte moglie e 12 anni ladra, infine divenne ricca e mori pentita». Colpi di scena e fuochi d'artificio che, con mai superato realismo, sembrano insegnare una spietata verità: virtù e rispettabilità a questo mondo fanno rima con ricchezza. Uno dei più grandi romanzi della letteratura inglese e, dopo due secoli, ancora divertente.