Podcast for Social Research: Practical Criticism No. 6—The Threepenny Opera

In this episode of Practical Criticism, Ajay Singh Chaudhary plays the finale of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera for Rebecca Ariel Porte, who, as usual, doesn’t know what the object of the week will be. They discuss true happy endings and false ones, operetta, satire, Brecht and Weill’s avant-garde experiments, and Walter Benjamin’s famous declaration that there is no document of civilization that is not also a document of barbarism.

(Nota bene: When Ajay mentions Roman coins depicting the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, he meant the Arch of Titus!)

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Practical Criticism is a weekly podcast in which, each week, a BISR faculty member reveals to another a cultural object, be it music, art, film, or literature, and critical discussion ensues. For all past and future episodes, please visit the Podcast for Social Research Patreon page.