Deconstructions of the opposition between representation and presentation from the neo-avant-garde to the post-millennium: from Pupilija, Jesih and Jovanović to Zupančič, Živadinov, Frljić, Semenič and Divjak

Abstract

The essay deals with selected examples of deconstructions of the opposition between representation and presentation, characteristic of the post-mimetic, from the neo-avant-garde to the post millennium. It traces authors who, from the 1960s to the present day, have deconstructed the drama and stage and invented new forms of re-dramatization and postdramatic intermedia interplay. We will see to what extent authors such as Peter Handke in Offending the Audience, the Pupilia Ferkleverk group in Pupilia Papa and Pupilčki, Dušan Jovanović in Monument G and Play the Tumour in the Head, Milan Jesih in Limits and Bitter Fruits of Justice, Matjaž Zupančič in The Corridor, Dragan Živadinov in The Rites of Farewell, Oliver Frljić in Damned Be the Traitor of His Country, Simona Semenić in 1981, and Žiga Divjak and Katarina Morano in various projects, persistently create disturbances in the fictional textual cosmos. However, at the same time they establish a powerful process of re-dramatisation, intense plots and denouements in theatrical texts and play-performances. It is as if, at the same time as deconstructing the dramatic, they inject the dramatic and the dramatic into the post-dramatic process of performance and writing. The post-mimetic thus coexists with the pre-mimetic, the »stripping down« of the representation of drama leads to the establishment of fiction.