Tadeusza Słobodzianka nie-boskie historie : dramaturgia w kręgu mitu

Abstract

The book is devoted to the discussion of six plays of a contemporary playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek published in “Dialog” in 1987 —1993. The texts of Slobodzianek placed in the reality of borderland and province, fairy tale and legend refer to the universal values of many denominations, traditions and ideologies. Their semantic space is, to a large extent, marked by intertextual relations. The dramas of the author of Merlin seem to provoke to decipher various literary, historical, cultural trails, to find motives, plots and pictures. The mythical context, common to all the plays discussed here, combines the plays designed for various kinds of theatre, highly differentiated in terms of form and theme. Refering to the closed repertoire of archetypes and symbols and accepting mythicality in its structural aspect, Slobodzianek universalizes the problems of people from the province, makes model situations out of them, not only uncovers the process of mythicization of reality but he himself also subjects this reality to mythicization. The book is, thus, devoted to myth manifesting itself in different shapes, it points to myth as a consitutional element and way of shaping the world of the presented plays. The specific dialogue with the myth begins in Slobodzianek’s texts already at the level of metatextual utterances. Titles, subtitles, mottos, not infrequently dramatis personae suggest that their origin is mythical, legendary or fairylike. The relations between subject and object utterance in the dramas most frequently bear the traits of antithesis and boil down to the crucial opposition for myth of sacrum — profanum in which the main text representing the level of profanum demistifies expressed in the title function or role of character or the truth expressed in motto. Mythological connections of the drama of the author of Merlin do not limit themselves only to mixing up in them the elements of myth; they also influence the method of shaping theatrical stagings, they constantly influence the final shape of stage utterances. The author does not abandon the texts after publishing them but constantly modifies them for the following premieres. His dramas do not have canonical versions, similarly, there is no one, “true” version of the myth. They are specific open structures, constantly additionally specified by the repeating them author. The place of myth in the narrative strategies of Slobodzianek, the problem of openness of his plays as well as clear elements of the poetics of oral literature are the subject of considerations in the first chapter. The following chapter is filled with the problems of the presence and function of religious symbolism and mythical motives of Car Mikołaj, Prorok Ilja and Obywatel Pekosiewicz. Detailed analysis of préfiguration of the motive of road, scapegoat and building the centre of the world is enriched with remarks concerning Christian symbolism and ancient motives: fall of the false king, divided brothers. Mythical motives, as well as religious symbolism clearly exposed in the dramas confronted with the brutal reality of contemporary life, with primitive behaviour or pararitual gestures of the heroes create together the grotesque picture of contemporary world built by the author. The following chapter of the book contains poetic reinterpretations of the themes of Celtic myth, the motives of Byelorussian fairytale and Argentinian legend used in Merlin, Turlajgroszek, Kowal Malambo. The texts of these plays are read, first of all, through the dominating in them motive of selling one’s soul to the devil and most clearly from all the plays by Slobodzianek realize the morality paradigm. The author consistently enumerates in them the sins of humanity, with the dominating seven deadly sins, irrespective of whether to tell them he uses the form of fairytale, burlesque or chivalric poem. These morality plays were not written according to the theological interpretation but from the perspective of a man for whom divine rights are mysterious, sometimes ambiguous. The features of ambiguity and duality are assigned by Slobodzianek both to the acts of providence and the undertakings of hell, making man their point of reference together with his flaws, susceptability to evil and desire for good. The book finishes with considerations concerning the connection of Slobodzianek’s dramas with ancient tales which Paul Ricoeur calls the myths of decline. The heroes of the plays, aiming at improving the world, undertake attempts at freeing it from evil, however, they themselves do evil and fall like Adam and Cain and many others. The condition of man which was presented in these texts is undoubtedly the condition of the fallen man. In the display of all the plays of the author of Merlin almost the same situation is described: in mythical Britain, in Grzybowszczyzna, in Zamość, in Argentinian pampa, in the fairylike native country of Turlajgroszek, in one word: in the world, things are not going fine. The following events lead, usually along a bumpy road, to the final which can be summarized in a sentence: things are not going fine, and for sure: not better. Consistent introduction of the receivers to the following stages of earthly hell makes non-divine histories out of Tadeusz Slobodzianek’s plays.