Exploration of dramatic form in the plays of Ivana Sajko

Abstract

This paper analyses the dramatic work of the contemporary Croatian writer Ivana Sajko, primarily from the point of view of her continuous enquiring, experimenting and playing with dramatic form as one of her most significant stylistic features. In this sense it is possible to follow her development: while the plays published in the collection entitled Smaknuta lica (2001) still maintain dramatic form, although they lack some typical dramatic qualities, in the next collection entitled Žena Bomba (2004) dramatic form is completely deconstructed and converted to a kind of hybrid text which rather resembles the so-called postdramatic theatre. Special attention is paid to the role of stage directions, which the author uses in various, innovative ways, and also to the introduction of the I- author as a character, which, traditionally, was consistently excluded from plays.