چکیده (انگلیسی):

This article draws on the cognitivist notion of blending to reexamine the theory of
alienation effect as illusion and emotion destroyer in Brecht’s Epic Theater. The
model established in this study illustrates the relationship between the blended
illusion in Brecht’s theater and the spectators’ complex cognitive and emotional
activities in the mental spaces. It shows that blending facilitated by the alienation
effect through insertion of the conscious with the subconscious expands the
spectators’ mental spaces for imagination and thus enhances illusion and emotion,
instead of eliminating them. By dissecting the ‘anti-illusionist’ and alienating
elements in Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle, such as prologue, Singer, his
audience addresses, and his communication with characters such as Grusha and
Governor, this study shows that the alienation effect serves indeed as an illusion and
emotion intensifier. Brecht’s Chalk Circle play achieves enhanced illusionist and
emotional effects by merging the ‘theatrical’ illusion with the dramatic one in
theater, which in turn facilitates the blending in spectators’ mental spaces. This
complex blending process in Brecht’s theater leads to spectators’ intensified
identification with dramatis personae directly and through ‘theatrical’ mediation with
the latter indirectly.
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