In this discussion of three contemporary playwrights from Slovenia, Germany, and Serbia (Simona Semenič, Anja Hilling, and Milena Marković), the focus is on the status of contemporary playwrights ...after the post-dramatic turn. I try to answer the question of how we can interpret the changes of drama and text in the works of the three playwrights and how we can use new definitions of textual, dramatic, or no longer dramatic or the post-dramatic, intercultural and intertextual, and rhapsodic in contemporary theatre. Can we understand post-dramatic theatre as a specific continuity and not primarily as a break with the tradition? Can we say that contemporary drama often exposes us to deconstructing the contrast between representation and presentation, but nevertheless establishes a powerful process of re-dramatization, of injecting the dramatic into the post-dramatic?
For the purpose of my examination of how literature and art take part in the circulation of significations and representations in the construction of social reality, I concentrate on a specific ...feature that links and unites the work of four contemporary European authors—the inflation of death and violence, or the “overflow of corpses” in their novels, plays, and performances. My first example will be Bosnian-Croatian theatre director Oliver Frljić, his disturbing, shocking performances in which he uses his own personal, wartime, and political traumas to ask universal questions about the boundaries of artistic and social freedom, individual and collective responsibility, tolerance and stereotypes. As the second and third example I will take plays by two (no longer) dramatic writers, Anja Hilling and Simona Semenič—two outstanding representatives of German and Slovene (no longer) dramatic theatre and drama, exploring in their texts a tension between repetition and representation in which the first mechanism undermines and challenges the second and produces a specific poetic or aesthetic device—an effect of
or defamiliarisation (Shklovsky). The third example will consist of the novels by Winfried Georg Sebald, in which the German author uses the device of his wanderings between signs, punctuated by black and white photographs, producing a specific emblematic of a mutation of space and time, in which history and geography cross-fertilise, tracing out paths and weaving networks. Besides examining the contestation of subject positions, I concentrate on the dialectics of art and society, where fluid, uncontainable subjects are constantly pushing the contours. Revising the critical consensus that contemporary art primarily engages with the real, the essay describes how theatre and fiction today navigate the complexities of the discourse as well as social realities; how the discussed artists all share the belief that creative expression must also be destruction. Art has to go beyond what we are and what we can identify through understanding. Thus, art negotiates, inflects discursive circulation of stories, idioms, controversies, testimonies, and pieces of (mis)information in the face of global uncertainties.
Razprava bo na podlagi študije šestih primerov iz sodobne gledališke in uprizoritvene prakse preverjala, kako lahko Lotmanov koncept semiosfere kot ekosistema, ki zajema tako prostor kot čas ...predstave, okoljski in ekonomski vidik ter politično okolje, ki obdaja gledališki dogodek, uporabimo za teorijo gledališča po prostorskem obratu ter v postkolonialnem in interkulturnem okolju. Njegov pojem semiosfere kot prostorsko-časovnega fenomena, kombinacije različnih (ne) verbalnih jezikov, ki so v neprestanem dialogu drug z drugim, bomo uporabili za analizo prostorskih odnosov in politik prostora v sodobnih uprizoritvenih praksah, da bi odkrili, na kakšen način uprizarjanje ustvarja semiotične jezike, ki niso enostavna vsota posameznih znakovnih sistemov, ampak v dinamični interaktivnosti vzpostavljajo gledališki dogodek. Predmet analize bodo gledališke predstave kot semiotični prostori prehodnih oblik, ki nastajajo med različnimi mediji, prestopanja meja med odrom in avditorijem ter spremembe dinamike odnosov med igralci in gledalci v procesu kreacije in recepcije. Lotmanov »vmesni položaj gledališča med gibljivim in nediskretnim svetom realnosti ter negibljivim in diskretnim svetom upodabljajočih umetnosti« (Znotraj mislečih svetov) bomo navezali na Rancièrjev pojem emancipiranega gledalca in Bourriaudov pojem prevajanja, umetnosti kot raziskovanja vezi, ki se pletejo med besedo in sliko, časom in prostorom. Raziskali bomo dinamiko semiotičnih jezikov v prostoru, ki niso enostavna vsota posameznih znakovnih sistemov, ampak v interaktivnosti vzpostavljajo gledališki dogodek.
Prispevek se ukvarja s posebnimi procedurami spomina v sodobni dramatiki, ki kljub navidezni absolutnosti sedanjosti, ki jo vedno znova reprezentira, velikokrat uporablja spomin, a ne več kot ...kontinuiteto spomina v smislu svetega Avguština in njegovih Izpovedi, ampak diskontinuiteto spomina v smislu beckettovskih junakov, pri katerih spomin dekonstruira veljavnost samega sebe. Na podlagi primerov (ne več)dramskih taktik od poznega modernizma do (ne več)postdramskega bomo prikazali transformacije drame spomina in spominjanja od negotovosti in izbrisa spomina poznega Samuella Becketta, preko raziskav spomina in osebne ter skupne identitete Dušana Jovanovića do postdramskih sopostavitev kolektivnega spomina novejše zgodovine in sedanjosti v dramski pisavi Simone Semenič. Teza, ki jo preverjamo, je, da sintetični model dramske gradnje ni brez alternative, ampak ga je v sodobni drami zamenjal analitični in »pripovedni« model gradnje ne več dramske pisave, v katerem se spomin emancipira od primata sedanjosti dramskega dejanja. V nasprotju z avguštinovsko pripovedjo, ki prikaže preteklost skozi spominjanja junakov v sedanjosti, s tem pa jim zagotovi tudi identiteto, je v sodobni dramatiki ravno obratno. Junaki so oropani tradicionalnih oblik spomina in pripovedi, saj bi njihova sposobnost povedati zgodbe, ki so del spomina, izključevala »kaos«, ki se zdi Beckettu bistven za formo, ki bo »dopuščala kaos« in »oskrbela zmešnjavo« ter zamenjala klasično dramsko obliko.
Prispevek raziskuje, na kakšen način lahko "multidisciplinarne" metodologije raziskujejo besedilnost v sodobnem mediatiziranem svetu in kako lahko preučujejo vezi med teksti in mediji, ki so (tako ...kot tiste v rizomu) heterogene, raznovrstne (Deleuze Guattari). Obravnava Butnskalo Marka Derganca in Emila Filipčiča, Slovensko narodno gledališče Janeza Janše, zgodbo o nekem slastnem truplu ter 5fantkov.si Simone Semenič.
Zanimalo nas bo, kako ta tekst rizom, ki ga Barthes poimenuje intertekst (v razliènih primerih od Dusana Jovanoviæ a do Simone Semeniè) nehierarhièno, hkrati pa medbesedilno in medmedijsko izjemno ...vezljivo strukturira sodobne (ne veè) dramske in gledaliske pisave. Kako se znajde v situaciji, ko je besedilo v gledalisèu (zdi se, da dokonèno) postalo nekaj, kar se razlikuje od drevesa z vejami, koreninami, osredisèenostjo. Kaj je prinesel ta novi polozaj dramskega v sodobnem gledalisèu, ta vèasih izrazita prehodnost, nomadskost. Polozaj, v katerem je - povedano drugaèe, ne veè s teoretskim aparatom poststrukturalistiène dvojice Deleuze-Guattari, ampak s terminologijo in argumentacijami, ki jo v odmevni knjigi Gledalisèa (dramske pisave) XXI. stoletja: Zaèetki razvijeta Julie Sermon in Jean-Pierre Ryngaert - postalo postavljanje antagonizma med besedilnimi pisavami na eni in odrskimi pisavami na drugi, absurdno. Meje med tema dvema vesoljema ne obstajajo veè. Morebitne polemike o koncu dramskih pisav tako izgubijo svoj smisel, saj z danasnje perspektive izhajajo iz globalnega gledaliskega trenutka, ki teksta ne izkljuèuje, hkrati pa mu ne pripisuje veè funkcije svetega in nedotakljivega elementa. (Sermon-Ryngaert 2012: 50-51) Dramsko besedilo se tako danes nahaja v sredisèu raznolikih mrez besedil, ki vplivajo nanj na razliène naèine: od tega, da se zazirajo vanj, do tega, da ga plemenitijo, mu dodajajo kompleksnost. Besedilo v gledalisèu, naj je dramsko ali ne veè dramsko, torej ni veè nekaj, kar je loèeno od drugih elementov predstave, ampak je prepredeno z drugimi interteksti. Od besedilnih do gestiènih, glasbenih, vizualnih. Hkrati dramsko besedilo ni nekaj iksnega, ampak se v medsebojnem delovanju z drugimi kulturnimi, medijskimi in umetniskimi medbesedili ves èas spreminja. Ali kot to razume Patrice Pavis: »Zgosèa, akumulira, amalgamira vrsto posebnih znaèilnosti, ki jih mora analiza besedila, resda velikokrat skorajda obupano, ponovno konstituirati in prerazporediti.« (Pavis 2011: 9) Za razliko od igre Za nase mlade dame (2007), v kateri se zgodba »odvija na naèin, ki je blizu ilmski strukturi, dramsko besedilo je namreè sestavljeno iz stevilnih kratkih prizorov (ilmskih 'lash backov'), ki neprestano preskakujejo skozi razliène case in tako fragmentarno razkrivajo pretekle dogodke, ki so pripeljali do umora« (Pezdirc Bartol 2011: 195), se je Dragica Potocnjak tokrat odlocila za sicer spet nekoliko ilmicno montazo krajsih prizorov, ki sestavljajo sinteticno ter pregledno strukturo drame. Toda na prvi pogled enostavna fabula se z brechtovskimi intervencijami in rusenjem realisticno-sinteticne zgodbe strukturira v size, ki z vsakim prizorom bolj razkriva kompleksnost in zivost tematike transplantacij, sveta darovalcev in prejemnikov, eticnih postulatov zgodb, ki jih pise zivljenje. Struktura drame tako bralca in gledalca vpelje v vlogo nekoga, ki, ne da bi se tega zavedal, drugega za drugim lusci sloje cebule, ki jo ima v rokah, ter postaja vedno bolj angaziran. Dramatika se je tako znasla v novi mejni situaciji, ki jo hkrati ogroza in osvobaja. O tem prièa tudi nekaj primerov slovenskih postdramskih medmedijskih tkanj, ki smo jih izbrali kot premete nase raziskave. Hkrati pa ti primeri prièajo tudi o tem, kako se je dialoska oblika znasla v druzbi heterogenih besedilnih taktik, od proznih do esejistiènih, teoretiènih in hibridnih, ki jim je vsem skupen poskus ustvarjanja oblik onstran drame. Tekst pri sodobnih dramatièarkah in dramatikih velikokrat postane matrica teatralnosti, ki ji sami naèrtujejo diskurz in pot. Ta teatralnost vsakiè znova razvija speciièen model za mozne gledaliske uprizoritve. Vsem tem razliènim avtorskim taktikam pa je v obravnavanih dramskih pisavah skupno to, da jih vsej igrivosti in parataktiènosti ter navidezni politièni indiferentnosti navkljub paradoksalno zanima prav etièna pozicija, akutna kriza etike.
The essay takes three examples of the recent Slovene politicized post- or retro-avant-garde big stage events in order to discuss their rhetorics and politics of space. It examines closely to which ...extent they can be interpreted as a contemporary version of rituals referring to the performative spatial signs as representations of the Slovene cultural space’s ever changing late- and post-socialist identity. Performed in some symbolic places within the territory of the capital of Ljubljana (The Republic Square, the biggest cultural and congress centre Cankarjev dom) these big scale events confirm and subvert the cultural identity of the community. They traverse the borderlines within the semiosphere of a cultural capital in which peripheries begin to synthesize new texts and introduce innovative ideas that are foreign and unknown to the centre and that might possibly act as catalysts for change. Using signs from peripheries these artistic events generate new meanings, structures and texts that invade the centre. We can interpret this procedure as an animated, dynamic process of the performance: a spatial machine characterized by parallel passages from real to formalized space, from frontal to circular and multi-centred space. Borders of the semiosphere that are originally used in order to separate and create identities, thus also connect and construct these identities by juxtaposing the own and the alien. By appropriating relations between spatial signs in different historical periods of Ljubljana they culturally present and deconstruct the past and present while using postmodern performative reading of objects of the past and present, intermixing and compounding art/theatre/film/music/literature/ballet/sports models. Thus they radically blur the borderline between real and fictive experience.
This article explores the ties between the 1920s Slovenian historical avant-garde (Ferdo Delak and Avgust Cernigoj) and the Italian (semi)futurists (Sofronio Pocarini). Its hypothesis is that both of ...these Slovenians came into the most dangerous form of contact with Futurism during this time, but that Futurism's relation to Fascism made them move towards Constructivism and the Bauhaus.
Theatre today speaks for a new type of cultural manifoldness, for a broad range of new differences that are developing. Creolisation is the intermingling of two or several formerly discrete ...traditions or cultures; it is an interweaving of similar and different threads of various colours, deriving from myths shared throughout the Mediterranean basin. Within such an understanding of culture theatre needs to speak out not only against domination but also needs to highlight the importance of marginality, otherness, and local contexts. It should not be hemmed in by literary-minded applications.As Benjamin Lee writes, “we have reached a time when no values from any single cultural perspective can provide frameworks adequate to understanding the changes affecting all of us”, which entails the decolonisation of cultural practices. We must think globally and act locally, be aware of universal myths, while remaining aware of the local circumstances and myths that surround us. In other words, a fruitful dialectical relation can ensue. In Slovenia, scholars often complain that, aside from specialists, nobody is “internationally” interested in local myths or national topics. This is not true: what is necessary is to find an appropriate way to present local or national topics within an international and global setting.
The essay analyses the corpora of the dramatic or non-dramatic texts of contemporary authors (Simona Semenič, Milena Marković, Tim Crouch, Oliver Frljić, Katarina Morano and Žiga Divjak, Anja ...Hilling, Wajdi Mouawad, Dino Pešut and She She Pop) as a border area belonging to both the field of literature and theatre. While detecting the specifics of the interpretation of drama and theatre, the author uses eclectic tools offered by literary and performing arts studies to analyse the corpora of contemporary drama or no longer drama and performing practices. Focusing on a series of contemporary playwrights and theatre directors, he seeks answers to the question of how we can interpret the changes in drama and theatre. How did the specific return to the theatre of words, as defined by the French theorist of contemporary drama Élisabeth Angel-Perez, take place, and to which extent are today’s theatre and drama still post-dramatic but nevertheless establish a new return to the dramatic and dramatised? How do these “experiments belonging to the so-called ‘post-dramatic theatre’ which is also a (post-)deconstructionist theatre, eventually, end up redramatising whatever it was they strove to un/de-dramatize” (Angel-Perez)? Thus, paradoxically, “‘no-longer-dramatic’ texts put forward a new dramaturgical form that subverts the dramatic representation of the world as a fictive whole and accommodates the ‘unsurveyable present’ (Lehmann) of the mediatised-globalised world”.
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