Page 115 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 115
Society as Seen in Slovenian Drama during Socialist Times and Today 115
But this is only a part of the narrative, which is constantly interrupt-
ed by time leaps into the future, or precisely, into 2013, when the text was
written. “and then it all spins spins backward and forward, spins like in a
movie … boris is fifty-three years old and is standing in the centre of a dis-
infected pharmacy” (Semenič 2013, 11). The heroes of the play are found
in their own future, which confuses them completely, and paints a con-
trast to the spectator/reader of the prosaic neoliberal capitalist of the 21st
century to the former socialist society.
Luka becomes a soldier, he has two children and is getting ready to set
off to a peace mission to Afghanistan. A former Pioneer, who once spoke
of comradeship and unity, is now off to kill in Afghanistan.
tiny and scrawny nana
well, son, yes, yes, of course, you’re going for the good salary, but you won’t
kill
lanky creature
well if he has to, he will, I googled and they kill each other, too
right, papa
luka
if I have to, I will (Semenič 2013, 40).
Erik morphs from a sensitive teenager into a careerist, who has been
appointed judge at the European court in Luxembourg; while Boris is left
unemployed when Primorje goes bust and will become a seasonal work-
er in Italy, picking strawberries. As Peter Rak writes in his review of the
performance at the SNT Maribor: “onethousandninehundreteightyone is
a solid text, which treats, from a unique, markedly subjective and large-
ly biased perspective, the perception between the allegedly almost idyllic
past and the prosaic present” (Rak 2016, no pag.). This gap, which on the
one hand largely idealises socialism, and on the other radicalises the criti-
cism of the present, prompts Nika Leskovšek to reach the following diag-
nosis: “onethousandninehundreteightyone is a play about the capitulation
of everything human, the decline of values, justice, ideals of freedom and
love for the homeland” (Leskovšek 2017, 452).
We could thus say that Simona Semenič builds a utopia of socialism
that Jovanović in Military Secret diagnoses and shows as an extreme dys-
topia. As for the period after 1990, which Jovanović might have seen as
the future utopia, when the freedom of speech, mind and agency will be
But this is only a part of the narrative, which is constantly interrupt-
ed by time leaps into the future, or precisely, into 2013, when the text was
written. “and then it all spins spins backward and forward, spins like in a
movie … boris is fifty-three years old and is standing in the centre of a dis-
infected pharmacy” (Semenič 2013, 11). The heroes of the play are found
in their own future, which confuses them completely, and paints a con-
trast to the spectator/reader of the prosaic neoliberal capitalist of the 21st
century to the former socialist society.
Luka becomes a soldier, he has two children and is getting ready to set
off to a peace mission to Afghanistan. A former Pioneer, who once spoke
of comradeship and unity, is now off to kill in Afghanistan.
tiny and scrawny nana
well, son, yes, yes, of course, you’re going for the good salary, but you won’t
kill
lanky creature
well if he has to, he will, I googled and they kill each other, too
right, papa
luka
if I have to, I will (Semenič 2013, 40).
Erik morphs from a sensitive teenager into a careerist, who has been
appointed judge at the European court in Luxembourg; while Boris is left
unemployed when Primorje goes bust and will become a seasonal work-
er in Italy, picking strawberries. As Peter Rak writes in his review of the
performance at the SNT Maribor: “onethousandninehundreteightyone is
a solid text, which treats, from a unique, markedly subjective and large-
ly biased perspective, the perception between the allegedly almost idyllic
past and the prosaic present” (Rak 2016, no pag.). This gap, which on the
one hand largely idealises socialism, and on the other radicalises the criti-
cism of the present, prompts Nika Leskovšek to reach the following diag-
nosis: “onethousandninehundreteightyone is a play about the capitulation
of everything human, the decline of values, justice, ideals of freedom and
love for the homeland” (Leskovšek 2017, 452).
We could thus say that Simona Semenič builds a utopia of socialism
that Jovanović in Military Secret diagnoses and shows as an extreme dys-
topia. As for the period after 1990, which Jovanović might have seen as
the future utopia, when the freedom of speech, mind and agency will be
