The Rhetorical and Stylistic Evolution of Theatre Reviews at the End of the 50s. The Disobedient – Case Study

Authors

  • Miruna Runcan Faculty of Theatre and Film, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca

Keywords:

theatre history, theatre criticism, cultural policies, arts in communist Romania

Abstract

This paper aims at analysing the way in which the structure and stylistics of theatre review influenced the evolution of critical thinking during the short thaw that took place in all Socialist countries after Nikita Khrushchev’s February 1956 speech in which the Soviet leader exposed the crimes of Stalin’s rule. We therefore analysed the reviews and essays of some of the most dynamic and most professional young critics who published in the Teatrul Journal: I. D. Sîrbu, Șt. Aug. Doinaș, Ecaterina Oproiu and Florian Potra. Symptomatically, all the four critics subsequently moved away from this profession, for dramatic reasons related to the political circumstances, and during the following decade, they became famous writers of poetry, literary criticism, dramaturgy or film criticism.

Author Biography

Miruna Runcan, Faculty of Theatre and Film, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca

MIRUNA RUNCAN is a writer, theatre critic and a Professor at the Theatre and Film Faculty at “Babeș‐Bolyai” University of Cluj, Romania. Co‐founder (alongside C.C. Buricea‐Mlinarcic) of Everyday Life Drama Research and Creation Laboratory (receiver of a three‐year National Grant for Research in 2009). Author of The Romanian Theatre Model, Bucharest: Unitext Publishing House, 2001; The Theatricalization of Romanian Theatre. 1920‐1960, Cluj: Eikon Publishing House, 2003; For a Semiotics of the Theatrical Performance, Cluj: Dacia Publishing House, 2005; The Sceptical Spectator’s Armchair, Bucharest: Unitext Publishing House, 2007; The Universe of Alexandru Dabija’s Performances, Limes Publishing House and Camil Petrescu Foundation, Bucharest 2010; Bungee‐Jumping. Short Stories, Cluj:
Limes Publishing House, 2011; Enlove with Acting: 12 Actors’ Portraits, Bucharest: Limes Publishing House and Camil Petrescu Foundation, 2011; Signore Misterioso: An Anatomy of the Spectator, Bucharest: Unitext, 2011; Theatre Criticism. Whereto? Cluj University Press, 2015; Odeon 70 – An Adventure in Theatre History, Bucharest, Oscar Print, 2016.

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Published

2021-02-02

How to Cite

Runcan, M. (2021). The Rhetorical and Stylistic Evolution of Theatre Reviews at the End of the 50s. The Disobedient – Case Study. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai - Dramatica, 64(1), 47–62. Retrieved from https://dramatica.ro/index.php/j/article/view/78