PECULIARITIES OF ARTISTIC COGNITION IN THE SPACE OF BERTOLT BRECHT'S CREATIVE WORLD

The article analyses the main principles of artistic cognition within the creative world of Bertolt Brecht, considering it the subject, first of all, of the author's reflection. From the point of view of the artist, expressed in his critical articles and theoretical works of different years, the knowledge and depiction of life's truth should be recognized as the main artistic guidance corresponding to the challenges of the time. This concerns the truth of public life,the discovery of which meets as obstacles to artistic research the criminality of society, the unwillingness of an individual to see the actual situation of their existence, analyse their own mistakes, and work to correct them. According to Brecht, the truth about other people and society can be revealed only if a person can realize and express the truth about themselves, no matter how unpleasant it may be. The analysis of Brecht's short story The Wounded Socrates not only allows us to outline the importance of life-saving utmost honesty in the process of self-understanding but also to reveal the connection of the writer's creative activity with the traditions of Europeanphilosophical literature rooted in the era of antiquity and genetically connected with Socratic dialogue. The epic theatre was created by Brecht in order to direct the spiritual and intellectual work of the creators and recipients of the theatrical action intounderstanding the most painful and dangerous problems of the present, tomake this collective work a prerequisite for fundamental social changes. Such a qualitative change in the social coexistence of people in the historical space of the twentieth century should not have been a victory in war, but avictory over war, i.e. exposing its true essence, hidden motives, and its suicidal for the human and humanity nature. The artistic synthesis that becomes a prerequisite for Brecht's dramaturgical innovation contributed to it, based on a combination of realistic and modernist artistic principles, the possibilities of epic, lyrics, and drama.