LYRIC DRAMA OF THE 1940S IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SLOVAK SURREALIST MOVEMENT

• Authors: Garay Kročanová Dagmar
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This study focuses on the clarification of the terms “lyric drama” and “poetic drama” as well as on the definition of their features in the avant-garde era. It briefly introduces “nadrealizmus” (literally “overrealism”) as a Slovak variant of the surrealist movement. Based on structural and semiotic criteria, it situates six plays from the first half of the 1940s within the context of surrealist drama and theatre. It records the change of dramatic form in the categories of character, plot, composition, and genre. In the case of staged plays, it uses contemporary reviews to describe directorial techniques. It also pays attention to the coexistence of lyric and dramatic principles, the loosening of structure, the use of montage, the associative approach, working with rhythm, and the oscillation between the visual and the musical. On this basis, it demonstrates that the plays of Rudolf Dilong, Štefan Žáry, Ján Poničan, Peter Zvon and Leopold Lahola from the early 1940s correspond to avant-garde poetics in drama and deal with key philosophical and anthropological issues of the surrealist movement, such as the problem of the subject, freedom, creativity, the nature of reality, and the validity of dreams.

Keywords

EN

AVANT-GARDE THEATRE; SURREALISM; LYRIC DRAMA; POETIC DRAMA; SLOVAK LITERATURE

• Publisher: Institute of Slovak Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Slovenská literatúra (Slovak Literature)
• Year: 2025
• Volume: 72
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 337 - 358

Contributors

author

Garay Kročanová Dagmar

• Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Gondova 2, 811 02 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4291-9408

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/slovlit.2025.72.4.5