The Theatre of Dissent in Non-aligned Slovenia and Yugoslavia from the 1950-ies till the Fall of the Berlin Wall

  • Tomaž Toporišič University of Ljubljana, Accademy for Theatre (AGRFT)
Keywords: dissent theatre, theatre of consensus, retro avant-garde, post-dramatic, politicised art

Abstract

The aim of the essay is to throw some additional light on the politics of dissent in the Slovene and Yugoslav theatre of the 20th century. It focuses on the specific Central and East European area of non-aligned Yugoslavia as a Second World cultural model in the period of socialism and post-socialism. It thus outlines the alternative culture that emerged after Tito’s break with Stalin in 1948 and continued with neo-avant-gardes and movements of dissent in the postmodern era marked by a severe crisis of self-management socialism. The essay starts from the definitions of the political in the post-dramatic by Hans-Thies Lehmann, and the theatre of opposition or dissidence and theatre of consensus by Valentina Valentini. It outlines the specific character of the Slovene theatre and the ideology of mild socialism that continued to define many aspects of the political within the one-party system of the former Yugoslavia. Thus, it maps a new geography of this specific East European theatre of dissent from the experimental theatre of the 1960's and 1970's until the retro-avant-garde subversive theatre of the Neue Slowenische Kunst.

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Author Biography

Tomaž Toporišič, University of Ljubljana, Accademy for Theatre (AGRFT)

Tomaž Toporišič (PhD) is a dramaturge, translator, theatre theoretician and critic. His primary research interests are the contemporary performing arts and literature, specifically the interaction between the two fields. From 1997 to 2003 he was the artistic director,  of The Mladinsko Theatre in which he worked as a dramaturg till 2016. In 1995 he co-founded Exodos Festival of Contemporary Performing arts, has published papers on literature and performing arts.

Currently he is an associate professor in Dramaturgy and Performance Studies and a vice dean at Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and TV at University of Ljubljana.

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Published
2020-05-30
How to Cite
Toporišič, T. (2020). The Theatre of Dissent in Non-aligned Slovenia and Yugoslavia from the 1950-ies till the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Between, 10(19), 434-458. https://doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/4006