Representation of Workers in Theatre Plays by Goran Ferčec and Vinko Mödendorfer
The thesis aims to investigate how workers or workers' collectives are portrayed in Goran Ferčec's performance texts collected in Radnička trilogija (2018) in comparison with Vinko Möderndorfer's play Vaje iz tesnobe (2012). We can conclude that the two playwrights want to activate the readers/viewers, for which they take different approaches. Goran Ferčec's trilogy traces the arc of workers' emancipation from the failed strike to the final overthrow of capitalism. In his post-dramatic writing, he frames workers as types who are primarily defined by their social position and who represent the whole community of exploited workers. Grouping workers into collectives, he draws on Marx's and Engels's notions of social stratification and class. In Vaje iz tesnobe, Möderndorfer shows the opposite situation. Short sequences reminiscent of film editing techniques blur the dichotomy of exploiter and exploited. He depicts an individualised and more stratified society, where the boundaries between the different classes are no longer clear. As the playwright is inspired by the in-your-face/the new European drama, the scenes are explicit, cruel, and full of verbal, physical and sexual violence.
Radnička trilogija addresses the readers/viewers with utopian images of workers moving towards success as a collective body, while Vaje iz tesnobe shakes their emotions with dystopian images that resemble reality. However, it is questionable whether any of the texts is successful in its appeal to activate the audience. Radnička trilogija can come across as naïve and utopian, while Vaje iz tesnobe does not offer escape that truly awakens hope.
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