Page 40 - 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. 40
Ideology in the 20th Century: studies of literary and social discourses and practices
no longer recounts the great narratives of revolution. It is dedicated to small
narratives and local events in which class, gender, ethnic, and other conflicts
are foregrounded under the worldwide aegis of transnational capitalism (554).
The Demolishing and Renewed Restoring of Illusions
Frljić originates from Gramsci’s notion of hegemony which includes a
special type of consensus: a specific group shows its particular interests
as interests of the society as a whole. In order to break the automatist re-
ception in the spectators and to simultaneously point out the hegemo-
ny, Frljić persistently demolishes the spectator’s horizon of expectation,
even more so, he also breaks the ‘comfort of the aesthetic distance’ as Ju-
van terms it. In the monologue, in which an actor politically incorrectly
40 treats the audience, he uses the neo-avantgarde method of Peter Handke’s
famous Offending the Audience. At the same time he builds the perfor-
mance on the technique of repetitive demolitions and renewed restora-
tions of illusions in scenes of war killings. As he himself describes it:
Through the inflation of death, through the incessant repetition of the un-
repeatable I want to emphasise the mechanism of the theatre which always
remains the representation of external realities … The repetitions of death,
which occur onstage in almost regular intervals and after which the per-
formers ‘return to life’, reveals the deadlock of theatrical representational
mechanisms. Those fictions-manufacturing mechanism which most often
remain hidden push out any type of content-thematic frame and thus re-
main the only visible” (Frljić n.p.).
Frljić is aware that art is merely another instrument reproducing in-
terests and values of privileged social groups. In order to break the hid-
den reproducing of ideologies in the society along with their attempt to
preserve the status quo, the social inequalities and faults as well as their
structured violence, Frljič in his productions intentionally removes the
theatre codes proclaimed by the reviewers as universal aesthetic values,
but only since they are created by social classes to which the reviewers
of the performances also belong. This can be interpreted as the essential
shift from the political theatre of late socialism in the 1980s, as the teath-
er of the late socialism was still creating its political content on the basis
of drama and fiction:
In the most radical forms of contemporary Slovenian political theat-
er, which is transforming itself into performance, actors or performers
no longer represent other persons (historical heroes); they rather present
no longer recounts the great narratives of revolution. It is dedicated to small
narratives and local events in which class, gender, ethnic, and other conflicts
are foregrounded under the worldwide aegis of transnational capitalism (554).
The Demolishing and Renewed Restoring of Illusions
Frljić originates from Gramsci’s notion of hegemony which includes a
special type of consensus: a specific group shows its particular interests
as interests of the society as a whole. In order to break the automatist re-
ception in the spectators and to simultaneously point out the hegemo-
ny, Frljić persistently demolishes the spectator’s horizon of expectation,
even more so, he also breaks the ‘comfort of the aesthetic distance’ as Ju-
van terms it. In the monologue, in which an actor politically incorrectly
40 treats the audience, he uses the neo-avantgarde method of Peter Handke’s
famous Offending the Audience. At the same time he builds the perfor-
mance on the technique of repetitive demolitions and renewed restora-
tions of illusions in scenes of war killings. As he himself describes it:
Through the inflation of death, through the incessant repetition of the un-
repeatable I want to emphasise the mechanism of the theatre which always
remains the representation of external realities … The repetitions of death,
which occur onstage in almost regular intervals and after which the per-
formers ‘return to life’, reveals the deadlock of theatrical representational
mechanisms. Those fictions-manufacturing mechanism which most often
remain hidden push out any type of content-thematic frame and thus re-
main the only visible” (Frljić n.p.).
Frljić is aware that art is merely another instrument reproducing in-
terests and values of privileged social groups. In order to break the hid-
den reproducing of ideologies in the society along with their attempt to
preserve the status quo, the social inequalities and faults as well as their
structured violence, Frljič in his productions intentionally removes the
theatre codes proclaimed by the reviewers as universal aesthetic values,
but only since they are created by social classes to which the reviewers
of the performances also belong. This can be interpreted as the essential
shift from the political theatre of late socialism in the 1980s, as the teath-
er of the late socialism was still creating its political content on the basis
of drama and fiction:
In the most radical forms of contemporary Slovenian political theat-
er, which is transforming itself into performance, actors or performers
no longer represent other persons (historical heroes); they rather present
