Siedem życzeń. Głos do dyskusji o strategiach badań teatrologicznych w Polsce i nie tylko
Seven Wishes. A Voice in the Discussion on Theatre Research Strategies

Summary/Abstract: The present article is intended as an expression of the author’s subjective opinions in a wider-ranging debate concerning the current state of Polish drama and theatre studies and their future prospects. While formulating his “local” diagnoses (in comparison with what is going on abroad) and advancing some critical comments regarding some research paradigms and tendencies, the author (a Romance scholar and theatrologist) takes the position of “semio-structuralism” and, as far as ideology goes, champions a conservative conception of man, the world, and scientific activity (taking into account all aspects of the human condition: the spir-itual, the psychological, and the socio-material). The article contains – as indicated by its title – seven principal postulates whose aim is to improve the condition of Polish theatre studies: 1) to eschew pseudo-philosophy and con-fusions generated in the context of the performance-studies turn in the humanities (equating science with ideology and fiction with reality, disregard for theory and systematisation); 2) to make do with ephemeral academic fashions and to focus on realising key local research tasks instead; 3) to revitalise Polish theoretical thought and to boost methodological reflexion in historical studies; 4) to switch from “inward transmission” to “outward transmission”, i.e. from translating foreign works into Polish (to be collectively mesmerised by them later on) to translating Polish works into other languages; 5) to create and popularise interdisciplinary re-search tools (the article includes a table that contains a grid of analytical concepts and criteria proposed for multi-aspectual study of spectacles); 6) to carry on axiological reflexion and to make efforts to redefine the concepts of art and theatricality in the face of the current aesthet-ic and ethical degeneration; 7) to institute a “new” kind of theatre criticism that would focus on promoting works of high artistic and ethical merit.

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