Page 131 - 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. 131
Contemporary Slovenian Stage-plays and the Political 131
performances and stage-plays in Slovenian theatres shows that the mode
and the approach to performing the socially and politically engaged is-
sues are diverse; they range from a simple political agitation to the com-
plex elaboration of the issues of society, power, violence and current pol-
itics. Common to all of them is the fact that the political engagement in
these works is different compared to that in the past: in the age of post-
modern intertwining we are not dealing with art autonomy any more and
consequently not with the sublime position of expression, but we are fac-
ing art that appropriates other discourses, procedures and topics, usually
in a fragmentary way. We are encountering Jameson’s notions of flatness
and depthlessness, as well as postmodern dispersion of power and voic-
es. Targets of the critique are nowadays harder to define than in the past,
since in the age of post-politics the bearers of power are not the represent-
atives of political parties or the state leaders, but, above all, the multina-
tional companies and the representatives of the capital.
One of the significant shifts in the understanding of the political in
contemporary performing arts is the shift from the politics of representa-
tion to the politics of perception, as Barbara Orel recognizes it when dis-
cussint Slovenian performing arts after 1998 (Orel 2018). Within this
turn, an important role is attributed to the audience or the viewer. At
this point, another discussion can start—the discussion on the question
of what happens when the performance is over. We can conclude that all
examples discussed above continue with the tradition of bourgeois thea-
tre and its claim for the theatre as moral institution. It seems that the aim
of these performances is to show the inconsistencies in society and pol-
itics, to educate, to raise awareness; first two examples also want to in-
fluence the voters, direct them, check their loyalty. However, Semenič’s
writing represents an exception: she is not primarily interested in the ac-
tive involvement in politics, as in survival tactics; instead of commenting
the current social-political events she is oriented towards bio-politics and
live embodiment. Relating this, she is very up-to-date, and with the issues
she is interested in, she is close to the endeavours of the most sensitive and
avant-garde media and new media art at the moment.
Works Cited
Eco, Umberto. 1989. “Poetics of Open Work”. In Umberto Eco, The Open
Work, 1–23. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Jameson, Fredric. 1991. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Cap-
italism. Durham: Duke University Press.
performances and stage-plays in Slovenian theatres shows that the mode
and the approach to performing the socially and politically engaged is-
sues are diverse; they range from a simple political agitation to the com-
plex elaboration of the issues of society, power, violence and current pol-
itics. Common to all of them is the fact that the political engagement in
these works is different compared to that in the past: in the age of post-
modern intertwining we are not dealing with art autonomy any more and
consequently not with the sublime position of expression, but we are fac-
ing art that appropriates other discourses, procedures and topics, usually
in a fragmentary way. We are encountering Jameson’s notions of flatness
and depthlessness, as well as postmodern dispersion of power and voic-
es. Targets of the critique are nowadays harder to define than in the past,
since in the age of post-politics the bearers of power are not the represent-
atives of political parties or the state leaders, but, above all, the multina-
tional companies and the representatives of the capital.
One of the significant shifts in the understanding of the political in
contemporary performing arts is the shift from the politics of representa-
tion to the politics of perception, as Barbara Orel recognizes it when dis-
cussint Slovenian performing arts after 1998 (Orel 2018). Within this
turn, an important role is attributed to the audience or the viewer. At
this point, another discussion can start—the discussion on the question
of what happens when the performance is over. We can conclude that all
examples discussed above continue with the tradition of bourgeois thea-
tre and its claim for the theatre as moral institution. It seems that the aim
of these performances is to show the inconsistencies in society and pol-
itics, to educate, to raise awareness; first two examples also want to in-
fluence the voters, direct them, check their loyalty. However, Semenič’s
writing represents an exception: she is not primarily interested in the ac-
tive involvement in politics, as in survival tactics; instead of commenting
the current social-political events she is oriented towards bio-politics and
live embodiment. Relating this, she is very up-to-date, and with the issues
she is interested in, she is close to the endeavours of the most sensitive and
avant-garde media and new media art at the moment.
Works Cited
Eco, Umberto. 1989. “Poetics of Open Work”. In Umberto Eco, The Open
Work, 1–23. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Jameson, Fredric. 1991. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Cap-
italism. Durham: Duke University Press.
