engleski

The role of affects in the constructs of gender identities in Croatian postmodern drama (on the example of Ivana Sajko's Woman-Bomb)

According to S. Tomkins’ classification of affects, the paper explores the role of disgust, anger, sadness and fear in the gender identity constructs in the Croatian postmodern drama Woman- Bomb (2004), written by the playwright Ivana Sajko. The methodological framework relies on the affect theories by S. Tomkins and A. Lucas, which are used to investigate the emotional communication between characters in the drama. Based on the research of N. Govedić, the affective reaction is hypothesized to result in communication, i.e., in revealing one’s own emotional states to others. Reception and the reshaping of the charge of the other are inherent to the affects themselves. They may also subject to political scrutiny and function as moral guides. Thus, this research focuses on the socio- affective (non) communication between the characters of the drama, constructed by the socially and symbolically marked feminist body of the ‘bomb-woman’ (‘terrorist-woman’). The body of a terrorist resonates with that of a ‘queer body’ (“the unfortunate one”, “the source of affliction”). By examining the construction of the gender identity of the ‘bomb-woman’ in postmodern drama, we conclude that Sajko’s literary strategies move away from stereotypical representations of gender identities, i.e., the role of women was regularly represented through motherhood in the literary practice of the 19th and most of the 20th century, while their potential for the social or “street-activist” engagement was overlooked. In accordance with postmodernist practice, through irony, paradox, intermediality, fragmentation, culture of performance and self- referential actions, in the character of the female terrorist – ‘bomb-woman’, the author expresses resistance to the traditional gender identity ‘conventions’, and this is especially evident in the analysis of disgust as the negative affect. Therefore, along with anger, sadness and fear, disgust becomes apostrophized in the feminist manner as the main affect in this monologic tragicomedy. The disgust with the stereotypical representation of women symbolically results in the identity of a “woman as a time bomb”. CROATIAN: U radu se istražuje uloga afekata gađenja, ljutnje, tuge i straha u konstruk- tima rodnih identiteta u hrvatskoj postmodernoj drami Žena-bomba (2004.) Ivane Sajko. Metodološki okvir čine teorije afekta S. Tomkinsa i A. Lucasa pomoću kojih se istražuje emocionalna komunikacija dramskih likova. Na temelju istraživanja N. Govedić, postavlja se hipoteza da je rezultat afektivne reakcije komunikacija u smislu prikazivanja vlastitih emocionalnih stanja drugima. Afektima je imanentno primanje i preoblikovanje naboja drugog. Oni podliježu i političkom nadzoru te funkcioniraju kao vrijednosni orijentiri. Stoga će se ovo istraživanje usredotočiti na društveno- afektivnu (ne)komunikaciju dramskih likova koja konstruira društveno i simbolički obilježeno feminističko tijelo Žene-bombe (žene- teroristkinje). Tijelo teroristkinje je blisko queer-tijelu (»nesretnom«, »izvoru nesreće«). Ispitujući konstrukciju rodnog identiteta Žene-bombe u postmodernoj drami, dolazi se do zaključka kako se literarnim strategijama reprezentacije Sajko udaljuje od stereotipnih prikaza rodnih identiteta tj. književne prakse 19. i većeg dijela 20. stoljeća, prema kojoj je ženina uloga redovito bila ukodirana u majčinstvu, a nikako ne u društvenom ili socijalno-aktivističkom angažmanu »ulice«. Ironijom, paradoksom, intermedijalnošću, fragmentizacijom, kulturom predstave i autoreferencijalnim postupcima, u skladu s postmodernističkom praksom, u liku Žene-bombe izražava se otpor prema tradicionalnoj konvenciji rodnih identiteta, a to se posebno ogleda preko analize negativnog afekta gađenja. Stoga je gađenje kao glavni afekt, u međudjelovanju s ostalima (ljutnja, tuga, strah), u ovoj monološkoj tragikomediji feministički apostrofirano. Gađenjem prema stereotipnoj reprezentaciji formira se simbolički identitet »žene kao tempirane bombe«.

affect theory ; feminist body ; gender identities ; Ivana Sajko ; queer body ; identity without identity ; emotionology in literature

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