Amfiteater (Jun 2022)
The Sexually Liberated Woman: Sexuality and Sexual Cultures in Two Plays by Simona Semenič
Abstract
The paper takes as its starting point the theory of sexuality as a social structure defined, among other things, by sexual cultures and their distinctive discourses and imperatives. The analysis of the distinguishing elements of restrictive and permissive sexual cultures in two of Simona Semenič’s plays – this apple, made of gold and rowan, strudel, dance and more – shows that sexuality is indeed one of the central themes in both plays. Furthermore, the playwright situates the thematisation of all sexual cultures in the context of social changes in organising sexuality. The dramatic subject finds herself in the grip of the modernisation of sexuality from which she is liberated through a drive to detraditionalise and individualise her sexuality and through a change in sexual morality. Simona Semenič primarily liberates the woman and her sexuality, who – with the rejection of the antisexual tradition of the Roman Catholic Church and the social changes in the organisation of sexuality in (post-)socialist society – traverses the path from sexual restraint to sexual liberalisation. The analysis proves that a sexually liberated woman, as thematised by Simona Semenič, is a novelty in Slovenian drama.
