Page 44 - 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. 44
Ideology in the 20th Century: studies of literary and social discourses and practices
Art as a Glocal Societal Spectacle and the Acute Crisis of Ethics
A specific authorial ethical engagement undoubtably joins Sebald’s prose
and Frljić’s productions, a consciousness of how urgent it is to find a new
language of art to address the ‘glocal’ society of the spectacle and the
acute crisis of ethics. The works of both of them are characterised by the
approach which Canadian reviewer Raymond Bertin exposes in the jour-
nal Jeu, Revue du théâtre when speaking of Frljić:
it is a demonstration of the absurdity of war and nationalism, but simulta-
neously a consideration and investigation of theatre itself, of the role and
the responsibility of the artist, the responsibility of everyone in the time of
war and after (2012).
44 Both authors reflect a specific dialectics of art and society, within which
fluid, uncontrollable subjects constantly change the contours. Both
of them show that they can steer contemporary theatre and literature
through the complexities of the discourse and social reality of neoliberal-
ism, even more so, in the era of terrorism. Each of them, within his own
medium, creates syncretic genres, enabling other genres to dialogically
join prose and theatre, to create an intertextual, inter-genre and even in-
termedial cohesive structure. In Sebald’s work this structure is implicit-
ly, while in Frljić’s performances it is explicitly political. Yet, the works of
both of them are in line with what Elsaesser remarked on Sebald:
he anticipates the other side of the medal, the dark side of Facebook, Twit-
ter and our obsessive online lives, as these are after all the real attemps of
the 21st century to rescue itself from the final recognition of our mortality”.
Therefore, both artists “intuitively touch the 21st century, while they write
about [and direct, added by T.T.] in and for the 20thCentury.
Thus they introduce “the ultimate Facebook of the undead of its own un-
happy century” (Elsaesser 2014, 35). Something that could be described
with the syntagma the violent effect of reality.
Draft translation by Jana Renée Wilcoxen
Works Cited
Behrendt, Eva. 2016. “Was hat das mit mir zu tun? Arpad Schilling, Oliver
Frljić und Andras Dömötör kommentieren in Wien und Berlin Europas
Ruck nach rechts.” Theater Heute, no. 8 (August/September): 4–9.
Art as a Glocal Societal Spectacle and the Acute Crisis of Ethics
A specific authorial ethical engagement undoubtably joins Sebald’s prose
and Frljić’s productions, a consciousness of how urgent it is to find a new
language of art to address the ‘glocal’ society of the spectacle and the
acute crisis of ethics. The works of both of them are characterised by the
approach which Canadian reviewer Raymond Bertin exposes in the jour-
nal Jeu, Revue du théâtre when speaking of Frljić:
it is a demonstration of the absurdity of war and nationalism, but simulta-
neously a consideration and investigation of theatre itself, of the role and
the responsibility of the artist, the responsibility of everyone in the time of
war and after (2012).
44 Both authors reflect a specific dialectics of art and society, within which
fluid, uncontrollable subjects constantly change the contours. Both
of them show that they can steer contemporary theatre and literature
through the complexities of the discourse and social reality of neoliberal-
ism, even more so, in the era of terrorism. Each of them, within his own
medium, creates syncretic genres, enabling other genres to dialogically
join prose and theatre, to create an intertextual, inter-genre and even in-
termedial cohesive structure. In Sebald’s work this structure is implicit-
ly, while in Frljić’s performances it is explicitly political. Yet, the works of
both of them are in line with what Elsaesser remarked on Sebald:
he anticipates the other side of the medal, the dark side of Facebook, Twit-
ter and our obsessive online lives, as these are after all the real attemps of
the 21st century to rescue itself from the final recognition of our mortality”.
Therefore, both artists “intuitively touch the 21st century, while they write
about [and direct, added by T.T.] in and for the 20thCentury.
Thus they introduce “the ultimate Facebook of the undead of its own un-
happy century” (Elsaesser 2014, 35). Something that could be described
with the syntagma the violent effect of reality.
Draft translation by Jana Renée Wilcoxen
Works Cited
Behrendt, Eva. 2016. “Was hat das mit mir zu tun? Arpad Schilling, Oliver
Frljić und Andras Dömötör kommentieren in Wien und Berlin Europas
Ruck nach rechts.” Theater Heute, no. 8 (August/September): 4–9.
