“New drama”: Pro et contra

Abstract

At the end of the 20th – the beginning of the 21st century there were serious changes in the poetics of drama, defi ning the strategy of artistic forms and features of artistic consciousness. This gives the right to single out the history of the “new drama” in a separate period of the literary and theatrical process. A new book by the Belarusian researcher S.Ya. Goncharova-Grabovskaya “Modern Russian Dramaturgy (late 20th – early 21st century)” is devoted to generalization and comprehension of this period, which is considered and announced in the presented review. The book examines the main trends in the development of the Russian drama at the turn of the 20-21st centuries: the history of the emergence of the “new drama” movement, aspects of poetics (hero, confl ict, chronotope, language), genre-style vector (social drama, documentary drama, monodrama, remake plays, drama of the absurd) – all that defi nes the specifi c features of the modern dramaturgical process. The focus is on the plays of famous playwrights, which have been staged in theaters in Russia and Belarus, have received positive reviews in criticism. The peculiarity of the reviewed book is that it analyzes modern Belarusian drama, traces its connection with the Russian. The book includes overview chapters refl ecting the genre and style parameters of drama, a list of plays, information about playwrights, control questions and assignments. The scientifi c and methodological publication under review is expected to be in high demand not only in the philological environment, but also among theater critics and theater historians.

Keywords

• “new drama”
• poetics of drama
• genre and style vector
• modern dramaturgical process