Der Band versammelt Lekturen gegenwartiger und historischer Konstellationen in Theater, Text und Kunst, die Echo als Figur und Phanomen nachspuren. Im antiken Mythos ist die Nymphe Echo zur ohnmachtigen Wiederholung fremder Rede verdammt. Sie wird zum Sinnbild eines defizitaren, vom Anderen abhangigen Wesens. Doch birgt der Widerhall mehr in sich, verweist er doch auf das widerstandige Moment einer Zergliederung jedes "eigentlichen" Ausdrucks. Echos koerperlose Stimme gemahnt an die Medialitat der Kommunikation, das Entgleiten des Sinns, die Grenzen der Mitteilbarkeit und die Ambivalenzen einer Aneignung der Vergangenheit. Damit aber wohnt ihr ein entschieden theatrales Element inne. Echo wird als eigene Praxis wirksam.

Volume 45 is focused on the theme "Brecht Among Strangers," with articles on a range of artists who engage(d) with Brecht from perspectives involving being a stranger, strangeness, or being estranged. Published for the International Brecht Society by Camden House, the Brecht Yearbook is the central scholarly forum for discussion of Brecht's life and work and of topics of particular interest to him, especially the politics of literature and of theater in a global context. It includes a wide variety of perspectives and approaches and, like Brecht himself, is committed to the use value of literature, theater, and theory. Volume 45 is the first of two volumes dedicated to the proceedings of the 16th Symposium of the IBS, "Brecht Among Strangers," held at Leipzig University in 2019. It features three sections: "Among Strangers–Brecht's Figures of Strangeness," "From East to West and Vice Versa–Geographic Interconnections," and "Global Estrangements–Brecht in the Age of Globalization." The articles cover a wide range of artists who engage(d) with Brecht and his work from such thematic perspectives — including Benno Besson, Arvind Gaur, Meng Jinghui, Mei Lan-fang, Peter Lorre, Koreya Senda, SIGNA, Konrad Swinarski, and Sergei Tretyakov — and link them to questions of alterity, dramaturgy, Gestus/gestures, pedagogy, realism, and singularity. The contributors include Gerda Baumbach, Aurélien Bellucci, Veronika Darian, Rico Dietzmeyer, Helen Fehervary, Zbigniew Feliszewski, Francesco Fiorentino, Anna Häusler, Günther Heeg, Eiichiro Hirata, Torben Ibs, Anja Klöck, Nikolaus Müller-Schöll, Astrid Oesmann, Patrick Primavesi, Tanja Prokic, Christoph Püngel, Kevin Rittberger, Sergei Romashko, Franziska Schubert, Melanie Selfe, Leonie Sowa, Kai Tuchmann, Lydia White, Noah Willumsen, and others.