Intracultural Theatre and Performing Slovenian National Identity

Barbara Orel

The paper examines the relationship between the politics and aesthetics of performing Slovenian national identity on the celebrations that annually (since the country’s founding in 1991) commemorate Slovenian Statehood Day. The cultural-artistic programme on the governmental stage is considered as intracultural theatre that presents the cultural traditions of individual regions and communities in Slovenia in order to re-evaluate the sources of its own culture and situate it in relationship to external influences. The representation of the identity of the new state moves between two extremes: the uncovering of ignored national narrations and the articulation of a transnational hybrid identity. The research shows how the stunningly different portrayals of the country’s identity have been influenced by politics (parliamentary elections, Slovenia’s accession to the EU), on the one side, and by creative artists’ approaches, on the other.

Barbara Orel is an associate professor of dramaturgy and performing arts and the head of the research group at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television of the University of Ljubljana (AGRFT UL). Her main areas of interest are experimental theatre practices, avant-garde movements and contemporary performing arts. She is the author of the scientific monograph Igra v igri [The Play Within a Play] and the editor of numerous monographs, among them, Scenske umetnosti in politike predstavljanja [Performing Arts and the Politics of Representation] and Hibridni prostori umetnosti [Hybrid Spaces of Art]. She collaborates as a researcher in the Theatrical Event working group of the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR). She has also been the selector of the Week of Slovenian Drama and the Maribor Theatre Festival.