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UID:news144@english.philhist.unibas.ch
DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20190508T151345
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20190521T130000
SUMMARY:Re-shaping Realism(s) in 21st-Century US Drama: Annie Baker’s Rei
nvigoration of the Art of Theatrical Spectatorship in "The Flick"
DESCRIPTION:In her chapter included in the recent volume Twenty-First Centu
ry Drama: What Happens Now (Adiseshia and LePage eds. Palgrave\, 2016)\, E
laine Aston claims that whereas realism endures as a dominant form on the
English stage\, with its attentions to the ‘here and now’ social reali
ties of a recognizable world\, theoretical and critical studies have in th
e last decades made little room for a rigorous analysis of the genre\, pro
bably because of the formal and ideological conservatism to which it is as
sociated. The same could be said of American drama\, where stage realism i
s also a pervading aesthetic and\, to a certain extent\, claims to greatne
ss continue to be defined in terms of the playwright’s ability (or failu
re) to write plays set in the privileged space of modern drama\, the famil
y home. \\r\\nIn my presentation I shall refer to Annie Baker’s plays an
d\, more specifically\, to the Pulitzer Prize winner The Flick (2013)\, wh
ose metatheatrical interventions into realism illusion-making and fourth-w
all regime of representation\, together with the invitation to prolonged w
itnessing through extended pauses and silences\, can be taken as illustrat
ive of some of the ways in which a new generation of twenty-first-century
American playwrights are reinvigorating established dramatic conventions t
o feminist and political ends —thus inviting us to think of realisms ins
tead of realism as a fixed\, unchanging and monolithic category. The Flick
’s slowed-down pace and agonising silences prompted recurrent walkouts d
uring the first week of performances at Playwrights Horizons\, causing a m
inor flutter of a scandal in New York City at the time of the premiere. Th
e audiences’ visceral (both positive and negative) reactions to the natu
ralistic portrayal of the seemingly inconsequential working routines of th
ree young underpaid ushers in a rundown movie theatre deserve critical att
ention. Thus\, in my analysis\, I will be concerned with understanding the
connections between the use of fluid forms of realism as a means to produ
ce significant interventions into the process of spectatorship\, the effec
ts of prolonged witnessing within the context of the endemic hurry-sicknes
s of the media era and the reactions to the activation of spectators as wi
tnesses of contemporary precarity.
X-ALT-DESC:In her chapter included in the recent volume Twenty-First Cen
tury Drama: What Happens Now (Adiseshia and LePage eds. Palgrave\, 201
6)\, Elaine Aston claims that whereas realism endures as a dominant form o
n the English stage\, with its attentions to the ‘here and now’ social
realities of a recognizable world\, theoretical and critical studies have
in the last decades made little room for a rigorous analysis of the genre
\, probably because of the formal and ideological conservatism to which it
is associated. The same could be said of American drama\, where stage rea
lism is also a pervading aesthetic and\, to a certain extent\, claims to g
reatness continue to be defined in terms of the playwright’s ability (or
failure) to write plays set in the privileged space of modern drama\, the
family home. \nIn my presentation I shall refer to Annie Baker’s plays
and\, more specifically\, to the Pulitzer Prize winner The Flick (2
013)\, whose metatheatrical interventions into realism illusion-making and
fourth-wall regime of representation\, together with the invitation to pr
olonged witnessing through extended pauses and silences\, can be taken as
illustrative of some of the ways in which a new generation of twenty-first
-century American playwrights are reinvigorating established dramatic conv
entions to feminist and political ends —thus inviting us to think of rea
lisms instead of realism as a fixed\, unchanging and monolithic category.
The Flick’s slowed-down pace and agonising silences prompted recu
rrent walkouts during the first week of performances at Playwrights Horizo
ns\, causing a minor flutter of a scandal in New York City at the time of
the premiere. The audiences’ visceral (both positive and negative) react
ions to the naturalistic portrayal of the seemingly inconsequential workin
g routines of three young underpaid ushers in a rundown movie theatre dese
rve critical attention. Thus\, in my analysis\, I will be concerned with u
nderstanding the connections between the use of fluid forms of realism as
a means to produce significant interventions into the process of spectator
ship\, the effects of prolonged witnessing within the context of the endem
ic hurry-sickness of the media era and the reactions to the activation of
spectators as witnesses of contemporary precarity.
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20190521T140000
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