Play Ladja brez imena was written by Vitomil Zupan in 1953 during his prison years. It was released much later, in 1972, and was never staged. The play itself is an innovative dramatic text with complex content, that breaks with the tradition and differs heavily from the then-prevalent literary current of social realism. Social realism depicts realistic characters in presumably life-like situations and characters are not individuals but representations of a particular social class. Play Ladja brez imena does not follow these rules: happening is not realistic, but moreover metaphorical, even dreamlike. Characters are positioned in borderline situations, in which they themselves have to decide between good and evil, between wish and power. Individualized characters have the power of free will, which could be reminiscent of existentialism. Frequent poetic inputs and recitatives render the play as a precursor of poetic dramas. But because dreams and reality interchange completely at random, it is not yet a true poetic drama. In the foreground of the play is an individual as he sails between the good and the evil, which might be attributed to the effect of expressionism.
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