Discursive and genre experiments in the contemporary Russian drama

Abstract

The article considers an influence of the genre traditions and discurses on Russian drama of the late 20th and early 21st century. The influence of documentary theater and the illusion of non-fictional speech created in G. Sinkina, A. Rodinov, Yu. Klavdiev, L. Mulmenko drama is noted. Pedaling the authenticity of character’s word is manifested by the verbatim technique – and at the same time returns the drama to the strivings of the early Soviet theater. The article also considers a correlation of the verbal and written discourses, their genre diversity as well as the ratio of the monologue – and dialogic potential of the texts written by N. Kolyada, A. Slapovsky, V. Levanov, V. Zueva, Ya. Pulinovich, E. Grishkovets, I. Vyrypaev, E. Isaeva, N. Vorozhbit, S. Reshetnikov. It takes into consideration the genre forms mixing what determines the structure of the play and its perception by reader-spectator. In particular, the research focuses on the literary and stage manifestations of the diptych – play in works of A. Zenzinov and V. Zabaluev, S. Zlotnikov, D. Gumenniy . The author of the article refers to the interaction of drama with other arts, both the visual (O. Mukhina’s plays) and sounding (I. Vyrypayev “Oxygen”), as well as modern media formats that determine the genre nature of the latest works for the stage (plays by A. Vartanov, R. Malikov). Special attention is paid to “network drama”, which qualitatively changes the structural principles for works in that kind of literature and motivates to rethink the categories of “drama world”, “character”, “conflict”, “plot”.