In search of a shallow theatre: the superficial plays of Elfriede Jelinek

• Grant number: 17/04905-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: June 01, 2017
• End date: May 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Celso Fernando Favaretto
• Grantee: Artur Sartori Kon
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 18/24775-5 - 'WHAT I STILL WANT IS FOR EVERYONE TO LISTEN' Elfriede Jelinek's texts for the theatre as 'tragedies of play', BE.EP.DR

Abstract

This project aims to investigate the dramatic work of austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek. Named by Hans-Thies Lehmann among the references for the elaboration of his much-debated theory of a "post-dramatic theater," this author's plays provide a particularly productive discussion of the possible meaning of dramaturgy today, at a time when theatrical activity seems to have become autonomous, dispensing with the prior existence of a text to be staged (as was still the rule until the mid-twentieth century). Formally reflecting on current issues such as the position of women in society and artistic creation, the refugee crisis and growing xenophobia in Europe, the contemporary transformations of capitalism and the powerlessness of theatrical work itself, Jelinek expands the limits of what is understood as a dramatic text: rather than traditional dialogues, the author creates language surfaces to be explored by directors and actors, whose autonomy of creation she recognizes and, moreover, actively provokes. Seeing these new formal approaches as necessary for the representation of the discussed contents, we propose a study in the dialectical tradition of Adorno, Szondi, Christoph Menke and the aforementioned Lehmann, in order to shed some light on recent historical developments of the theatrical text. (AU)