Katsou, Natalie. 2023. Οι φαντασματικές μορφές στη σύγχρονη Eελληνική δραματουργία από τη Μεταπολίτευση έως το 2020 [Spectral figures in contemporary Greek dramaturgy from the 1974 regime change (Metapolitefsi) to 2020]. Doctoral thesis, University of Athens, Greece [Thesis]

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Abstract or Description

The PhD thesis under the title ‘Spectral figures in contemporary Greek dramaturgy from the 1974 regime change (Metapolitefsi) to 2020’ investigates ghosts and other spectral figures that appear in contemporary theatre texts suggesting the perspective of an active dramaturgy reading, combining philosophical, theoretical and drama analysis pperspectives. The question of the ontology of the spectrum is present throughout the study of the various spectral figures, during the exploration of the relationship between the Derridean “revenant” with the developing frame of the Freudian uncanny, in conjunction with memory and ways of creating history/histories. As a ”revenant”, the spectrum surges from the margins and it acquires the position of an active agent within dramaturgy. Since all characters on paper and on stage are products of the imagination, the spectrum invites to a deeper investigation of the other and it turns response – per Waldenfels- to a necessary term of being on a wider scale. Its appearance sheds the sense of the uncanny, whilst it shatters the concept of time and it questions any linear reading. In order to trace and restore the fractures the spectrum causes, a study into memory and history, as well as into the once-familiar-turned-unfamiliar is needed. Memory (or memories) and history (or histories) synthesize the narratives on stage whilst mirroring the narratives from off-stage. In the exploration of this double narrative, spectral figures function as a powerful search tool for multiple layers of meaning.

The combination of semiotics-hermeneutical structures to phenomenological extensions and the overall presentation aims further to help establish the role of the dramaturg as a creative researcher that analyses the parameters and offers the tools to the processing and the reception of a theatre text both as performance material for the stage and as an independent and self-sufficient reading material.

In regard to the structure of the thesis, each chapter introduces a theoretical frame and then presents analyses of specific representative examples. The frame gathers theoretical, philosophical and aesthetical approaches that, on one hand discuss concepts that are tied to each category of spectral figures, and on the other hand offer a three-dimensional construction that traces the wider socio-historical and creative context within which the questions related to each group of spectral figures are shaped.

The theorists and philosophers are selected according to some intellectual affinities, whilst drawing a temporal arc that embraces both the topics of the plays and the evolution of contemporary continental philosophy. The theatre plays/examples are mainly selected according to their levels of tension and dynamics, and their position within each given category in relation to their ability to cover some representative characteristics for their group, and sometimes for their exceptional qualities.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Theatre and Performance (TAP)
Date:	June 2023
Item ID:	39200
Date Deposited:	15 Jul 2025 08:34
Last Modified:	15 Jul 2025 08:34
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/39200

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