Radosavljevic, Duska (2020) Biljana Srbljanovic and Ivana Sajko: Voice in the Place of Silence. In: Contemporary European Playwrights. Routledge, London. ISBN 9781315111940

Abstract

In this chapter, the author advances an argument that the local context(s) can be seen to have shaped a very specific type of dramaturgy that is well exemplified by the respective authorial idioms of playwrights Biljana Srbljanovic and Ivana Sajko. She proposes that this work demands to be seen in new ways, rather than by reference to existing taxonomies and discourses. Srbljanovic and Sajko’s post-Brechtain authorial voice abolishes the traditional hierarchies while deploying a more relational form of self-inscription. They make themselves audible within the stage directions to engender a metadialogue with the text and engage the reader/audience in a relationship. Voice has been as integral to the feminist discourses as ecriture feminine, although Briony Lipton and Elizabeth Mackinlay note that the advent of neoliberalism has complicated this agenda and opened up the potential of silence. The chapter opens up avenues for further research at the intersection of voice studies, feminism, trauma, politics, and the Balkans.