Abstract
Metamodern aesthetics and its key characteristics are usually viewed through the prism of a determined swing or whirling. Like a pendulum, it follows a certain trajectory: moving from modernistic seriousness, elitism, historical codes, mythological allusions to irony, carnivalization, mass culture and comes back, thus becoming a pérola barroca, which has two polar sides in its flexible core. Metamodernism claims for a greater depth due to its self-reflexiveness and selfawareness, which manifested in contemporary literary practice, drama in particular. The article aims to study the development of the meta-concept within the theatrical method and provide the systematic overview of the metatheatricality and metadramaticity based on the play “The Author” by Tim Crouch. As the result of the presented survey, it is found that the development of theatrical innovations is marked by changes in the author (playwright)–recipient relationship, the distance between stage and the audience, inclusion of the author’s position through a reasoner and the alienation effect. “The Author” represents the implementation of the above-mentioned innovations through different levels of metatheatrical devices: the play within the play, selfreference, role-playing within the role, the ceremony within the play, and literary and real-life reference. The problem outlined in the article is not limited to the presented research and its prospects lie in the complex analysis of the “metatheatre” as a metamodern notion.
Highlights
Contemporary dramatic studies are undoubtedly connected with several main trends and movements
It is not fair to completely deny the crucial impact of the Poetics on contemporary drama tendencies and dramatic criticism, as postmodernism itself welcomes to keep the balance between antique aesthetic traditions and modern drifts
Some of the literary critics suggest using in such a context the concept of metamodernism to highlight the slight changes in the artistic paradigm that became popular in the 1980-s
Summary
Contemporary dramatic studies are undoubtedly connected with several main trends and movements. It is not fair to completely deny the crucial impact of the Poetics on contemporary drama tendencies and dramatic criticism, as postmodernism itself welcomes to keep the balance between antique aesthetic traditions and modern drifts. Some of the literary critics suggest using in such a context the concept of metamodernism to highlight the slight changes in the artistic paradigm that became popular in the 1980-s. The term "metamodernism" was introduced in 1975 by Mas'ud Zavarzadeh, who interpreted the notion as a vague bunch of aesthetic and literary practices that emerged since the mid-1950-s. Further Robin van den Akker and Timotheus Vermeulen, in the essay Notes on Metamodernism (2010), expand the interpretation by stating that the postmodern era has come to an end. The "destiny" of metamodern man is to chase a floating horizon (Vermeulen & Van den Akker, 2010)
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