MARGINALISATION OF ART IN THE LATE PLAYS OF STEVE TESICH
Marginalisation of Art in the Late Plays of Steve Tesich

Summary/Abstract: The paper traces the motif of the misuse of art as it is developed in Steve Teshic’s post-Hollywood drama. The focus is on the various strategies, exposed most forcibly in On the Open Road, ensuring the spiritual remoteness of classical art even when it is physically accessible, but also on the differences in reception conditioned by class – i.e. the much more immediate experiential value art potentially holds for the economically/socially /educationally marginalized groups as opposed to those occupying privileged/central positions. In the second part of the paper, the recurring issues in Tesich’s late plays – the corruption of art, falsification of truth, trivialization of freedom, and the loss of being in the post-modern era – are contextualized within a broader comparative analysis of two conflicting traditions in the history of European art, particlarly drama, whose archetypal clash is the theme of Tyger Two, Adrian Mitchell’s play about Blake’s sudden reappearance and triumphant survival amidst the flood of popular culture and conceptual art – two updated versions of the revolutionary poet’s old adversaries.

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