THE END OF HISTORY AND THE LAST PERFORMANCE? Cover Image

KONIEC DEJÍN A POSLEDNÁ INSCENÁCIA?
THE END OF HISTORY AND THE LAST PERFORMANCE?

Author(s): Michal Babiak
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Poetry, Aesthetics, Drama, Sociology of Art
Published by: Ústav divadelnej a filmovej vedy SAV

Summary/Abstract: The text ponders the possibilities of seeking new theatrical interpretations through the prism of the “end of history” thesis, which has been brought to social discourse by Francis Fukuyama. The text points to the direct link between Fukuyama’s thesis and the ideological and philosophical premises of postmodernism: both concepts suggest the end of the program of modernist search (both for a new political arrangement and cultural paradigm). However, they pose a serious problem for new theatre performances because the act of staging is based on discovering new interpretations. What is theatre going to speak about if we have – hypothetically – already discovered all possible interpretations (as Fukuyama and the philosophy of postmodernism suggest)? If theatre is supposed to be a mirror of its time (Shakespeare), is its role only to witness this end, the end of the program of modernist search?

  • Issue Year: 63/2015
  • Issue No: 02
  • Page Range: 153-159
  • Page Count: 7
  • Language: Slovak