Powrót podmiotu klasycznego do współczesnego dramatu słoweńskiego

Abstract

The basic hypothesis of the article is a contemporary dramatic phenomenon, i.e. the return of the classical drama onto theatrical stage. The question, naturally, arises with regard to the reaction of the theatre to the change in former socialist countries among which Slovenia is taken as a case in point. In addition to the newly (re)discovered performativity of the literary theatrical texts, the article deals with the immanent political character of dramatic literature. As it appears, theatre, even in the form of postmodernist performances, does contain a political extension. In Slovenia, a general crisis of drama has become almost a common place. For the last fifty years, dramatic genres, such as the drama of the absurd or poetic drama, have embodied the way how Slovenian authors have coped with their reality. Political drama, with few notable exceptions (such as D. Jovanović, B. A. Novak, D. Potočnjak), has been almost nonexistent. The article attempts to make the case for D. Potočnjak, the first female playwright to have received the Grum prize for the best Slovenian drama of the year. She does not shun such awkward topic as the people that our society has shoved by the wayside (refugees, Roma, people with special needs etc.). It is through the depiction of these „secondclass” human beings that her texts gain a political edge. It is hence possible to say that these texts, which portray the decayed relations in our Western society, assume again the role of classical dramas.