포스트드라마와 새로운 서사: Crimp의 Fewer Emergencies를 중심으로

Abstract

The aim of this article is to determine what exactly 'postdrama' and 'the contemporary narrative' are, through a reading of Martin Crimp's Fewer Emergencies. Traditional works of drama are representations of reality, and they function through the use of tension, development, climax and resolution. However, these techniques are not used in the postdramatic theatre, which also completely ignores the representative aspect of traditional drama. Writers of postdrama seek neither synthesis nor logical linearity. Instead, postdrama is characterized by a lack of synthesis, and by parataxis, episodic composition and dream-images. The first part of this article concentrates on the question of why Fewer Emergencies is a good example of postdrama. The work is devoid of naturalistic details and discourse backgrounds such as the characteristics of the characters, the social conditions of the characters and the causes of events. Fewer Emergencies is composed of very short episodes that are divided into fragments. Therefore, the work is neither consistent nor synthetic. Furthermore, the story is filled with parataxis so that no episode can be evaluated as superior or inferior to other episodes. The stories of the shooting, the mailman's son and the mailman in his bed are not connected causally, but are simply arranged and presented in a row. The second part of this article shows that in Fewer Emergencies it is difficult to arrive at any definite and certain meanings, because its narratives continuously nullifies what has come before and sometimes what is taking place. All the narratives are incomplete, thus precluding any certain and fixed meanings. The narrative moves from one unconnected story to the next. Therefore, as the story fragments are not concluded, the meanings become diluted and are subject to change.