Brechtian Figures or Stereotypical Characters? Brechtian Character Construction and Minority Representation in Radu Jude’s Kontinental ’25
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37130/0hqh5419Keywords:
Brechtian figures, realist acting, minority representation, stereotypes, Radu Jude, contemporary Romanian CinemaAbstract
Brechtian character development rejects individualized psychological traits, as a polemical response to Stanislavski’s realist character development, which Brecht criticizes for grounding characters in a fixed “human nature” and claiming to present the world “as it is”. Such representations leave little room for spectatorial agency, situating the spectator instead as a passive receiver of truth. To remedy this, creating an active mode of spectatorship oriented towards social change, Brecht recommends the use of figures, which embody recognizable social positions, class relations or ideological functions, which foreground the characters’ social determination and ultimately the possibility for change. Stereotypes also reduce characters to recognizable traits, naturalizing social hierarchies and essentializing identity. They erase individual agency and complexity, reinforcing prejudice. This raises a critical question: what happens when a character developed according to Brechtian principles belongs to a national minority? The paper argues that such representations can be misread as stereotypical precisely because audiences interpret them through a realist lens. Through a case study of Radu Jude’s recent film Kontinental ’25 (2025), the paper discusses whether Brechtian character development reproduces prevalent stereotypes regarding the Hungarian minority or sets out to accomplish something else entirely.
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