Based on careful study of archival materials the study presents the research, newspaper writing and political activities of Jiří Veltruský, covering especially the years of his studies at university and after the WWII. The author pinpoints, for example, Veltruský’s theatre activities with secondary-school students in the Avant-Garde Theatre Group of the Youth, his political engagement, and close relations to Záviš Kalandra and Karel Teige, and the Surrealists. The gist of the study represents an analysis of as yet unpublished introductory paragraphs of the renowned lecture by Veltruský, published as ‘Dramatický text jako součást divadla’ (Dramatic text as a Component of Theatre, 1941), which include a relevant polemic discussion with the previous structural theatre theories (esp. the ones by Honzl and Bogatyrev). The author of the study, therefore, suggests a reinterpretation of the decade between 1930 and 1940 when the interest of Prague Structuralists in theatre theory culminated as a period of negotiating and re-thinking the structuralist ideas over theatre performance. The historical circumstances, especially Veltruský’s emigration to Paris in 1948, then prevented a satisfactory conclusion of the discussions and caused petrification of texts which may not have originally been meant to become a canon.
2
Dostęp do pełnego tekstu na zewnętrznej witrynie WWW
Structural approach to theatre was developed in the late 1930s and during the WW2 in frame of Prague Circle (“PLC”) as a result of an activist approach to scholarship and close collaboration between theatremakers and scholars. Although the connection between avant-garde aesthetic of 1930s and structuralist writing on theatre has been already described, there are more important relations beyond that generally acknowledged frame. Seminal structuralist essays on theatre were often written as polemics that were addressed, besides regular readers, to the opponents of PLC members. They were also written in the already changed cultural context, where the previous avant-garde model was the object of reflection and overcoming. Furthermore, this approach was driven by the need to explain Avant-Garde theatre to general public by terminology of modern scholarship. The so called Prague theatre structuralism could be therefore seen as a paradigm of scholarship that formulates its theories with respect to science popularisation as well as an attack against other “actors” in the field of theatre studies. The author focuses on the practical and organisational aspect of the PLC. Different modes of collective action in the public space as well as material conditions of existence and financial support are described. Attention is also paid to national and political (leftist) affiliation of the members of the Circle. From this perspective the PLC approach to theatre is analyzed as set of action rather than set o text and ideas.
JavaScript jest wyłączony w Twojej przeglądarce internetowej. Włącz go, a następnie odśwież stronę, aby móc w pełni z niej korzystać.