Genre Convergence in Contemporary Drama

Abstract

The article is devoted to genre convergence as one of the most widespread varieties of genre transformations in drama at the border of the 20th – 21st centuries. As genre convergence, we understand the process of interaction, convergence, eventually merging of different genres elements in one text. The genre convergence in contemporary drama is the merging of drama, comedy, farce and melodrama elements. The essence of the phenomenon is determined and the difference between the concepts "genre convergence" and "genre diffusion" is established. In contrast to genre diffusion, in the process of which elements of different, polar genres (tragic, comic, farcical) not only interact genre elements that participate in genre convergence, while converging and even merging still keep their autonomy nevertheless. Unlike genre diffusion, genre elements that are involved in genre convergence, when converging and even merging, still maintain their autonomy. The melodramatic component in the text carries its load and retains its influence on the text and genre nature, comedy and drama perform their own functions. There you can see convergence of various drama types (epic, lyric), total intertextualisation, intermedialisation of drama piece and also convergence, interaction of different genre elements: comedy, farce, drama, melodrama. Various manifestations of genre convergence that lead to genre polyphonism, a combination of epic and lyrical drama elements, wide intertextual and intermedial links are analyzed on the material of the play by the сontemporary German playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig "A woman from past times".