Brecht Yearbook 48 features a section on Brecht's and Heiner Müller's engagement with modern living, a group of essays on "Brecht Post-2020," and additional new Brecht research on various topics. The Brecht Yearbook, published on behalf of the International Brecht Society, is the central scholarly forum for the study of Brecht's life and work and of topics relevant to him. Volume 48 opens with an article on the research that informed the 2022 exhibition Brecht's Paper War. The next section examines Brecht's and Heiner Müller's engagement with modern living: from the housing question in the 1920s to the dramaturgical function of furniture to dialectical stage-auditorium configurations in the early GDR. The following section on "Brecht Post-2020" explores dramaturgical approaches to the learning play under pandemic conditions as well as the "spectrological" aspects of Drums in the Night. Additional new research includes essays on the critical edition of Brecht's notebooks, his reception in fascist Italy, the ambivalence of the heroic in his work, the prioritization of political parable over avant-garde aesthetics in Round Heads and Pointed Head, boxing as inspiration for epic theater, Hegelian aspects of Refugee Conversations and The Measures Taken, and the working alliance of Brecht and Kurt Weill. Edited by Markus Wessendorf. Contributors: Fanti Baum, Luke Beller, Manuel Clancett, Daniel Cuonz, Raffaella Di Tizio, Patrick Eiden-Offe, Anja Hartl, Fritz Hennenberg, Matthew Hines, Alba Knijff, Sophie König, Grischa Meyer, Marie Millutat, Ramona Mosse, Zafiris Nikitas, Cornelia Ortlieb, Joseph Prestwich, Matthias Rothe, Kumars Salehi, Francesco Sani, Fadi Skeiker, Stephan Strunz, Lara Tarbuk, Julia Weber, Marten Weise, Noah Willumsen, Claus Zittel.

The relationship between economy, finance and society has become opaque. Quantum leaps in complexity and scale have turned this deeply interdependent web of relations into an area of incomprehensible abstraction. And while the economization of life has come under widespread critique, inquiry into the political potential of representational praxis is more crucial than ever. This volume explores ethical, aesthetic and ideological dimensions of economic representation, redressing essential questions: What are the roles of mass and new media? How do the arts contribute to critical discourse on the global techno-economic complex? Collectively, the contributions bring theoretical debate and artistic intervention into a rich exchange that includes but also exceeds the conventions of academic scholarship.