Transformation of an epic text into a drama: the way M. Gorky's novel “Mother” is changed in Brecht's drama “The life of revolutionary Pelageya Vlasova from Tver’ ”

In 1906 Gorky’s novel “Mother” was published for the first time. It was published in the United States in English; in Russian the novel appears in 1907 in Berlin, published by I.P. Ladyzhnikov, and in Russia the book was first published uncensored in 1917. In 1930-1932, B. Brecht creates a play based on M. Gorky’s novel for the Theater of Comedy. The article focuses on how the perception of the novel, its main characters, motifs, and themes change when the major genre (lyric, drama, epic) changes. The study shows that the play is an independent literary work, far from coinciding with the original text in many aspects. The authors have different aims in creating their works. M. Gorky’s aim is to draw attention to the life of workers (after the Sormovo demonstration) in tsarist Russia. B. Brecht creates a text, relevant for the epoch of Germany in 1920-1930, using the post-revolutionary Soviet Union as an example of successful revolution. Moreover, he shows all the characters as people out of particular time or country, emphasizing that there are plenty of “Vlasov of all countries” supporting the main character. The article shows in detail how and why the characters change in the play, examines which details in their characteristics change the reader’s attitude, which scenes of the play coincide with episodes of the novel, and which are completely new, examines the compositional features of both texts. The final part of the work considers the question of why M. Gorky gives the later work a positive assessment, despite the significant differences in the texts of the novel and the play.