METATHEATRICAL ASPECTS IN “THE AUTHOR” BY TIM CROUCH

Anna Savyna

doi:10.23856/4909

Anna Savyna Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9500-3623

Keywords: metacharacter, metadramaticity, metamodernism, metatheatre, mise en abyme

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.

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