Brecht’sinstructions for theLehrstücke(teachingplays), DarkoSuvininfact des-
ignatesHaltungas the“terminus technicus ofaMarxist theory of behavior.”⁴Ac-
cording toSuvin,Haltungand its cognateVerhalten(behavior) are closelyrelated
to discourses of control and strength–especially, one might add, whenever
power remains beyond reach. Whether identifiedwith an individual or a
group, the termestablishesarelationship between bodies and ideas in perform-
ative terms.Itisinseparable from norms of public behavior and,while typically
equated with an ethos of resistance, just as often associated with an attitude of
inflexibility.Inall cases,Haltungimpliesastrong sense of conviction that,by
choosing steadiness over adaptability,promotesatendency towarddogmatism.
And preciselythrough this unwillingnessto yield,Haltung,accordingtoSuvin, is
well suited for articulatingapolitical position or,inthis case, defining an agita-
tional style.
At first glance,Haltunghas much in common with the Brechtian practice of
Gestus,which treats physicalgesturesasmanifestations of political attitudes.
Both modalities, in turn, are inseparable from the bodycultures developed in
the context of workers’sport,industrial labor,and military training and, in
their insistence on influencing attitudes and behaviors through physical regimes,
far removed from bourgeois notions of psychological interiority.However,Gestus
typicallyinvolvesamuch more dialogic, process-based practice. As Marc Silber-
man pointsout,its function is to foreground the historicalnature of social struc-
tures and institutions andto emphasize theiravailabilityto critical analysis and
political critique.⁵By contrast,the performances ofHaltungexamined in this
chapter preclude the possibilities for open dialogue as they follow highlynorma-
tive definitions of political emotions and make clear distinctions between con-
structive and destructive ones. In defining theterms and conditions of standing
likeacommunist,KPD agitprop not onlyarticulatedofficial party positions; of
special relevanceto this discussion, it also presentedradicalization asaprocess
of masculinization.To what degree the equation of class consciousness with
masculinity drew on tropes of militancy formed in the crucible of war and revo-
lution has alreadybeen discussed in chapters9and 10.Inwhat ways thisgen-
dered model of proletarian identifications nonetheless openedupaspace for
DarkoSuvin,“Haltung,”inHistorisch-kritisches Wörterbuch desMarxismus,ed. WolfgangFritz
Haug,7vols.(Berlin: Argument,2001),5: 1134.Also see his“Haltung(Bearing) and Emotions:
Brecht’sRefunctioningofConservative Metaphors forAgency,”inZweifel—Fragen—Vorschläge.
Bertolt Brecht anlässlich des Einhundertsten,ed. ThomasJung (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang,
1999), 43 – 58.
MarcSilberman,“Gestus,”inHistorisch-kritisches Wörterbuch desMarxismus,5:659.
240 Chapter13