NAČO JE DIVADLO V CHUDORĽAVOM ČASE
WHAT IS THEATRE FOR IN A DESTITUTE TIME?

Summary/Abstract: The present paper, referring to Hölderlin’s verse “What is a poet for in a destitute time?”, raises a question about the position, role and possibilities of theatre in the current “destitute time”, i.e. at the time of the current crisis of values. The author situates the beginning of the crisis of values into the period of modern art and brings it in relation to Nietzsche’s thesis about God’s death and call for a general review of values. Modernist philosophy and aesthetics questioned the possibility of evaluation, which contributed to a relativization of values as such, as well as the act of evaluating. On the other hand, modernist art tended to present its program as relevant and valuable to all movements, which brought it into contradiction with philosophy and aesthetics. The paper points out that today’s sense of crisis of values is not derived from the program of modernism, but it probably dates back to the beginnings of postmodernism – both in philosophy and art. The questioning of several principles that the philosophical program of modernism was based on also led to the questioning of creation, reception, interpretation and evaluation in art. In the conclusion, which analyzes the program statements of postmodernism in Western (including Slovak) culture, the author makes a claim that today’s boundless pluralism has contributed to a broad relativization of artistic values. Due to this, theatre’s role in people’s lives is diminishing. Overcoming the postmodernist program may involve returning to certain values; however, this does not have to mean returning to the comfort of “lost paradise”, which would offer an answer to Nietzsche’s provoking question: “Do we actually know what is up and down there?

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