On Arendt's Brechtian Adages and the Sins of the Poet

<kc:p>Arendt writes in Men in Dark Times that “poets are there to be quoted, not to be talked about.” Nonetheless, over the course of her essay on Brecht, Arendt both quotes and talks about Brecht at length, and invents a slew of adages to explain the relationship between Brecht’s life and work. My argument is that in her sundry adages – or even phrases that sound like such – Arendt seeks, even invents, a specifically literary authoritativeness. For instance, according to Arendt, Brecht’s life story serves to illustrate that “a poet’s real sins are avenged by the gods of poetry.” Arendt derives this and other significant adages from a very loose interpretation of a line of Goethe, such that they seem to carry the authority and quotability of their supposed literary provenance. The Goethe line thus furnishes a literary authority for Arendt’s adages, while illuminating the conflicted lessons that she draws from the story she tells about Brecht.</kc:p>