Blaž Lukan

Blaž Lukan is dramaturge, writer and theatre critic. He is an assistant professor of dramaturgy and the head of dramaturgy at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana, and member of the editorial board of magazines Maska and Amfiteater. He works as a playwright in theatre and film, as a theatre critic regularly contemplates home and host theatrical productions, writes forewords to the book publication of drama and experts texts of Slovenian and foreign authors, and debates in the field of drama and performing arts theory. He has written several books, including the glossary Theatre for Youth (Gledališki pojmovnik za mlade, 1996), Slovenian dramaturgy: dramaturgy as a theatrical practice (Slovenska dramaturgija: dramaturgija kot gledališka praksa, 2001), Still lifes and grimaces: theatrical expression (Tihožitja in grimase: gledališke ekspresije, 2007).

What happens to critical "judgement" and "objectivity in the era of post-criticism?" What are the new forms of criticism and critical options? This is the schema of Blaž Lukan’s contribution entitled "Transfigurations of Critical ‘Judgment’ in the Postcriticical Era". He first analyzes the notion of the power of judgment lying at the etymological heart of criticism, where the statement of a judgment does not necessarily connote authoritative power. The fundamental critical strategy is a redistribution of a critical object, which begins with the act of a viewer’s perception. In the context of post-criticism, criticism has not only forsaken judgmental power, but has also experienced other transfigurations and become objectified in various "negative" theoretical and practical fields. At the same time, contemporary critical practices produce an unexpected, "positive" critical bonus.