An overview of the state and direction of the development of contemporary Slovenian drama, research
The Slovenian Theatre Institute has published a study entitled Overview of the Status and Development of Contemporary Slovenian Drama, by Kim Komljanec. The study on the status and development of contemporary Slovenian drama offers insight into the circumstances of the creation and translation of contemporary Slovenian drama at the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century from the perspective of various groups of stakeholders: playwrights, translators, dramaturgs, directors, artistic …
Memories and views of Stage 57
The publication Memories and Views of Oder 57 was printed on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of Oder 57, which was accompanied by a lecture by Taras Kermauner at the Slovenian Theatre Museum on 24 January 2008. In the lecture, the author sets out some new emphases on the time, context and dynamics of creation within the Oder 57 theatre group, this central figure in the first wave of theatre experimentation after 1950, which …
Sin and the search as an origin
The book Sin and the Search as Origin is the second in a sub-series that explores the origins of Slovenian drama, but it does not stop at this topic: it deepens the topic into an investigation into the emergence of fundamental human traits: meaning, evil, salvation, sin, guilt, faith, language, communication, etc. It also treats as dramatic texts (perhaps surprisingly, but completely in line with Kermauner's research method Reconstruction and/or reinterpretation of Slovenian drama) two texts of dialogic …
Parents-children
Taras Kermauner's book, which continues the sub-series The Making of SAPO (Free Autonomous Individual) within the project Reconstruction and/or Reinterpretation of Slovenian Drama, examines seven plays that are very different from each other. Rado Murnik's play Napoleon's Samovar is from the 1890s, Edvard Kocbek's Mother and Son from the 1930s, Ivan Potrče's The Traitor from the 1940s, Emil Filipčič's Veselja dom and Krištof Dovjak's Debelušček from the 1990s. …
Family sacrifice
Family Victim is the third edition in the sub-series entitled The Making of SAPO (Free Autonomous Single Person); it follows on from the first books in this sub-series, entitled Detel's Drama and Hypocrisy and Cynicism. While the first two books in the sub-series discussed plays by Frano Detel, the subjects of analysis this time are Zofka Kvedrova's plays Pravica do življana and Ljubezen and Ivo Šorli's play Blodni ognji. All three are less well-known, the first two have been printed, and the third has been staged, but …
Hypocrisy and cynicism
In this book, Taras Kermauner focuses on the drama of Fran Detela (1850 – 1926), the author of popular short stories (Pegam and Lambergar, 1891; Malo življenje, 1908; Novo življenje, 1908; Vest and Zakon, 1927), but also a playwright. His dramatic oeuvre is extensive: from the first, The Scholar, 1902, to the last, The Refugee, 1916. In between, Detela also wrote Two Friends, 1905; Two Misers, 1917, and The Gentle Souls. The discussions synthesize Kermauner's understanding of Detela's drama and introduce …
Links
Interconnections is the fourth book by Taras Kermauner in the Geometry of Orders subseries; the first three – Assumptions, Foundations, Views – were published in 1999 and 2000. In the framework of the research Reconstruction and/or Reinterpretation of Slovenian Drama (RSD), Kermauner continues and at the same time deepens the same theme: he derives an axiology-methodology that is characteristic of the entire RSD, or the science of the Other (from the Other), as the author called his scientific and philosophical project. In Interconnections, the author is guided by the ambition to …
Bloody dance
Academician Taras Kermauner's book Bloody Dance continues the research into the drama of Slovenian political emigration, the dramatic texts of authors who wrote drama in exile. In Kermauner's view, this is nevertheless a part of contemporary (post-war) Slovenian drama, regardless of ideological differences. The discussion is devoted to two dramatic texts, namely The Cow to Spain (1939), written by Niko Jeločnik, and Dance in Trnovom by Cvetko Golar (1942). In doing so, the author draws on his analysis from …
Resurrection or Requiem
Resurrection or Requiem, the next book in a series of studies of Slovenian drama with the aim of plastically reflecting the spiritual-historical profile of the Slovenian people in their transformation into a nation and on the path to an independent state, is dedicated by Taras Kermauner to the drama of Slovenian political emigration. The author analyzes in detail Jeločnik's drama Resurrection of King Matthias and two dramas from Mirko Mahnič's trilogy: Soldaški miserere and Mečki requiem. Alenka Goljevšček, in her essay Slovenia in the construction of a new myth, rightly …
Divergences
The fiftieth book by academician Taras Kermauner from the extensive research Reconstruction and/or reinterpretation of Slovenian drama is the third in the subseries Dialogues. It consists of public letters mainly to the author's (former) friends, including Vital Klabus, and develops from a dialogue into a polemic about the fundamental starting points of this undoubtedly unique research on Slovenian drama. The increasingly exposed personal note of the author indicates a pronounced tendency to personalize the subject of the research, perhaps …
Contract. Reading Room Drama 4
Kermauner's new book from the research Reconstruction and/or reinterpretation of Slovenian drama analyzes some of the most characteristic authors or their plays, which traditional Slovenian literary history has classified as so-called reading room drama. She justified this with the opinion that it is a marginal literary phenomenon. Kermauner explores in a new and original way the plays by Josip Vošnjak The Minister's Letter (1889), A Woman's Victory (1889), Jakob Aleševec's play Podlaga zakonovni sreče (1872), Jurčič and …
The paradox of salvation
Dramatics of Slovenian Political Emigration 3 The book The Paradox of Redemption, as the third in the subseries Dramatics of Slovenian Political Emigration, discusses three plays, the brief analyses of which were already published in the first book of the subseries, Holy War, which was published in 1997. This time, the play discussed is Zorko Simčič's Tako dolgi mesec avgust and two plays by Frances Papež, Svetinja and Krst ob Srebrni reki, both written in the early 1990s...
Heaven = Hell
Primorska Slovene Drama 3 Taras Kermauner also continues to research and reinterpret Slovenian drama written by Slovenian Primorska people. The more this sub-series Reconstruction and/or Reinterpretation of Slovenian Drama progresses and expands, the more complex and differentiated the image of the subject under consideration appears. In the present book, the author also deals with dramas that seem to be outside the originally outlined circle, but he does so primarily …
Wrong and right
The Emergence of the Left-Right 3 The book Wrong and Right is the third in a sub-series that explores how the Slovenian left and right emerged not only as political ideologies, but also as value-interpretative, and thus also moral, religious, philosophical systems, as the realization of both systems. In particular, it is a demonstration of how they were formed "at the turn of the centuries", i.e. in ...
Justice and punishment
Drama of Slovenian Political Emigration 4 In this book, academician Taras Kermauner discusses the following plays, which fall within the framework of the so-called drama of Slovenian political emigration: Justice has been proven by Janeza Evangelista Kreka, written as early as 1900, and The Great Man from 1943 is by Ljuba Prenner. Both plays were written in the period before the emergence of …
Friends and traitors
Dramatics of Slovenian Political Emigration 5 The present book by academician Taras Kermauner from the series Reconstruction and/or reinterpretation of Slovenian drama deals with the dramatics of Slovenian political emigration. It discusses the dramas The Traitor by Jože Lovrenčič and The Plotters with Blood by Franček Bohanc (1945), the latter of which belongs to the drama of the National Liberation Movement, but in Kermauner's opinion Bohanc emerged from the pre-war and interwar Slovenian right-wing and critically presents the interwar existence of ideologically distinct members of the radical Slovenian Catholic Church. Kermauner further notes that the drama of the National Liberation Movement and the drama of the Slovenian …
Slander, conversations
Dialogues 2 The book Evil Speech, Conversations continues the publication of commented correspondence between Taras Kermauner and his interlocutors: Andrej Roto, Stanko Klinar and Miran Hladnik. Through the publication of this correspondence, the reader gains insight into the "underground" of Kermauner's project Reconstruction and/or Reinterpretation of Slovenian Drama, which is by no means just a science, least of all a traditional literary-historical science, but is above all a person's self-questioning about the fundamental dilemmas of existence, which in Kermauner's books take on the appearance of scientific self-reflection and also self-criticism, which, due to ...
Pena. Reading Room Drama 5
Reading Room Drama 5 In his research on Slovenian drama, Taras Kermauner devotes special attention to reading room drama and discusses dramatic texts that, despite being forgotten today, influenced the course and development of Slovenian drama. The analysis shows that this drama received critical attention in various directions of Slovenian drama: in Etbin Kristan, Ivan Cankar, Ivan Tavčar, etc.
Theirs – ours. Reading room drama 3
Reading Drama 3 The third book in the Reading Drama subseries discusses a series of plays written between 1866 and 1889: works by Miroslav Vilhar, Mihael Lendovšek, Josip Jurčič and Janko Kersnik, and Josip Vošnjak. The most famous of these is Jurčič-Kresnik's Berite Novice (1878), which does not mean that the other plays discussed did not influence the development of Slovenian drama. This is also confirmed by the monodrama Matjaž …
History of Lipizzaner
Today's Slovenian Drama 4 The fourth book in the Today's Slovenian Drama subseries is titled after the comedy by Ervin Fritz Lipizzani (2000). Lipizzani is, of course, a metaphor for today's Slovenia. In addition to the analysis of this play, Kermauner also analyses some contemporary Slovenian plays that have been performed in recent years, namely: Alice, Alice by Dragica Potočnjak, Limonada slovenica by Vinko Möderndorfer, The Naked Pianist or Little Night Music by Matjaž Zupančič, and Psyche and Phile by Baron Münchausen by Emil Filipčič, the latter of which was written by the author in the early 1990s, or in …
Fish and ticks
Primorje-Gorski Slovene Drama 2 The discussion Ribe in tički aims to analyze, in the most complex and in-depth way possible, the plays written by Primorje-Gorski playwrights, as well as other Slovenian playwrights who dealt with the same themes (Justo Košuta, Jaka Štoka, Marjan Tomšič). Kermauner is convinced – and this is how he conducts his analysis – that Primorje-Gorski Slovene drama is a self-contained whole, autonomous …
The mother-in-law under the ostrich
Morality = Amorality 5 The book Taščica pod nojem is the fifth in the sub-series Morality is Amorality, which broadly deals with the drama of Igor Torkar. The work examines some plays that have chosen the national liberation struggle as their theme (among others Birth in the Storm by Vitomil Zupan, World Without Hate by Mira Mihelič, The Great Trial by Igor Torkar). The analysis is based on a commentary on Torkar's post-war play Gospod Ponikvar, which the analyst believes should be understood "from within" (given the structure that ...
Hero John and Saint Anthony
The Celje Counts Complex 2 This book is the second in the subseries about the Counts of Celje and focuses on the character of Prince-Bishop Anton Slomšek. The book symmetrically continues its predecessor from the subseries, The Superman Blaže and Princess Nežica. This time, Kermauner undertakes an analysis of the following plays: Amphictyony or Janez Goligleb by Anton Novačan (1940), Slomšek's Birth by Miha Lendovšek (1900), The Caring Mother on Saturday Evening by Franc Šmon (after Slomšek; 1936), The Blessed Mother of Hema by Niko Kuret (1936), Mlinar's Janez by Viktor Kokalj …
Superman Blaze and Princess Nejica
Complex of Celjskih 1 With the book Nadčlovek Blaže and princesa Nežica, Kermauner introduces a new series in the study (reconstruction and/or reinterpretation) of Slovenian drama. The author's initial intention was to analyze in more detail Anton Novačan's play Herman Celjski, but it became apparent to him that it was inevitable to first devote himself to Novačan's other plays, especially the play Nadčlovek (1939), which was partially revised after the war. In addition, the author also devotes himself to Aleksi Pregarc's dramatic "glue" Božji vitez na slovenski zemlji, …
Aspects
Geometry of Lines 3 Contents of plays: Alenka Goljevšček-Kermauner Materials for bibliography: Martin Grum Computer drawings: Ajda Kermauner Kavčič, Stane Kavčič
Foundations
Geometry of Orders 2 The second book in the Geometry of Orders subseries presents the assumptions, foundations, basic explanations of the methodology and axiology of the project Reconstructions and/or Reinterpretations of Slovenian Drama. It continues the book Assumptions and, by publishing two essays in the Notes, comments on the model images, with which the author provides the most precise and presentable insight into the semantic structures of his long-standing research into Slovenian drama. …
Speeches, speeches
Dialogues 1 The book Addresses, Second Addresses occupies a very special place within Kermauner's research on Slovenian drama. It consists mainly of Kermauner's written correspondence, which took place in recent times. These correspondences raise questions of science, axiology and methodology, theology and philosophy, and are also personal - this gives them a special value, as Kermauner's treatment of older and newer Slovenian drama is also based on personal contacts and relationships. These offer insight into the creation of drama by living authors and also their self-reflection, ...
Cultural environment
Today's Slovenian Drama 3 In this book from the Today's Slovenian Drama sub-series, Taras Kermauner analyzes the drama of Rudi Šeliga. In order to show the connections between today's and traditional Slovenian drama in the most complex and differentiated way possible, Kermauner compares Ervin Fritz's play The Heart of Saint Andrew with two pre-war plays by Niko Kuret, The Blind Countess and The Play about the Antichrist. The book also includes an analysis of today's Slovenian prose, which the analyst understands as cultural …
Comments
Today's Slovenian Drama 2 The second book in the Today's Slovenian Drama sub-series deals with Rudi Šeliga's play The Holy Sarmatian Blood, which was staged in 1997 on the stage of the Maribor Drama SNG and aroused a series of critical remarks, as the playwright tackled concrete events on the territory of the former Yugoslavia through the depiction of the pathological Serbian obsession with establishing the "kingdom of heaven" on the basis of blood...
Showdown between the gates
Today's Slovenian Drama 1 Taras Kermauner's book The Account Between the Doors is the first in the Today's Slovenian Drama sub-series and deals with plays by younger Slovenian authors who are being written today or who were written in the 1990s. With his characteristic meticulousness, Kermauner discusses Krstijan Muck's Portimao, Krištof Dovjak's Account in the Louvre, and Matjaž Zupančič's Flycatcher. All three plays are based on the assumption that the problem of the nation and the people is...