Genre Liminal Transformations in Modern Ukrainian Drama

Abstract

Modern Ukrainian drama in the 21st century went through the following stages of development (according to the concept of liminality by A. van Gennep and V. Turner): separation as a rejection of past ties (since 2013); liminality as a stage of conditional uncertainty, search for identity, active experiments with form, choice of genre and language; 3) incorporation (unification), which modern drama takes place with the beginning of a full-scale war. The stage of liminality is characterized by active experiments with genres and manifests genre transformations caused by separation from canons and established norms.

The main goal of the article is to characterize and systematize genre liminal transformations in modern Ukrainian drama.

The forms of transformations in modern Ukrainian drama are determined primarily by the specificity of the author's understanding of current problems of the present, which is manifested in liminal images, description of liminal states of characters, liminal chronotope, etc. A modern Ukrainian playwright chooses the image of a character for a topical drama – a Ukrainian, a contemporary, who is in search of his own identity, primarily national (ethnic, which brings to the fore a set of values), then socio-cultural and gender. Such topics, which authors choose for artistic
interpretation, influence changes in the genre and reveal a form of genre transformation - thematic renewal. Choosing to portray a character's liminal state requires finding the most appropriate genre. Contemporary topical drama demonstrates such a transformation as a genus-species mixture through the juxtaposition of genres and the substitution of function. The opposition of genres (genre and counter-genre) is embodied in the appearance of the daily drama, dokudramy, genre formation "text for the theater". One of the forms of transformation of the drama genre under the influence of post-dramatic theater aesthetics (according to G.-T. Lehmann) is genre synthesis as an attempt to return to the initial artistic syncretism. This was manifested in the design of the post-drama genre, which is a draft text that captures the general directorial idea and forms it into a full-fledged dramatic text by a group of artists (playwright, director, actors) during rehearsals and work on the play.

Modern Ukrainian drama is primarily represented by synthetic genres, the most popular of which are tragifarce and monodrama. Transformational processes in modern Ukrainian drama are also presented in such forms as the involvement of inserted (non-literary) genres, due to a change in scale – the appearance of cycles of mini-plays and competitions of short plays.