engleski

Dying Bodies, Living Corpses: Transition, Nationalism and Resistance in Croatian Theatre

The essay offers an analysis of the performative potential and representational strategies of the body in a theatre/performance of/in – ideological, political, social, cultural – transition. The particular emphasis is placed on the nationalism and its effect on the performing body, whether in theatre or other cultural performances. Firstly, the essay brings into focus the kind of theatrical performing that was – not necessarily through direct agency – engaged in the political project and practice of the authoritarian state power, which developed even totalitarian symptoms. Then, an attempt is made to identify counter-performances that were (and still are) determined to resist, if not transgress, predominant model and function of theatrical representation, that is the drama theatre and political spectacle enforced by often “ invisible” ideology embodied in representational mechanisms such as “ theological stage” (Derrida) and “ realism” (Lyotard). In both cases, however, apart from some general observations, the intention is not to give a panoramic view of the contemporary theatre in Croatia and its political, social, cultural, economic, national, religious “ environment” . Rather, the essay looks into phases or “ waves” of transition through the agency of only one critical – even paradoxical, easily subjected to repression, manipulation, marketing, but also always (already) potentially subversive – machine, material, “ agent provocateur” (Lehmann) of each cultural performance: the performing/living-dying body. Finally, the essay gives examples of the body politics in selected performances, two political spectalcles (Statehood Day 1995 military parade and Celebration of President Tudjman's Birthday in 1997) and several works of the representatives of Croatian new or “ postdramatic” theatre: Montažstroj, Damir Bartol Indoš, Nikolina Bujas Pristaš and Branko Brezovec.

theatre, transition, body, nationalism, resistance

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