The socio-historical dimension of Štepka’s dialect in the radošina naive theatre and some of its dramatic chronicles
Spoločensko-historický rozmer Štepkovho nárečia v RND a niektoré jeho dramatické kroniky
This paper, which came into being as part of a wider monographic project, explores the functional and aesthetic dimensions of the use of the local dialect of Radošina in the work of the prominent Slovak playwright Stanislav Štepka and in the productions of the Radošina Naive Theatre. Štepka is very closely attached to Radošina; he is knowledgeable about its past, present, theatre and the fates of its inhabitants. Radošina is a source of inspiration for him; he deals both with its positive and negative features. However, this does not explain his rich use of dialect. It can be assumed – and understandably so – that Štepka also uses dialect for other authorial purposes. Dialect is ascribed a significant role in characterization and building situational and plot contrasts and conflicts, and finally, it is elevated to a peculiarizing aesthetic element. The dialect of Radošina and standard Slovak constitute the basic dichotomy of Štepka’s literary production: either one or the other is spoken by his characters. However, it is not a perfect dichotomy based on the assumption that the two languages are separate entities. Štepka’s dialect of Radošina and Slovak meet and overlap in his texts: they may occur within one play, either each spoken by a different character or both within the same character’s speech act. It must be, however, added that although dialect and standard language are important, they are not the only style-forming feature of Štepka’s work. In order to produce a comic effect, Radošina theatre players like to put them in contrast, thus connecting other heterogeneous or mutually exclusive elements: low/high, popular/official, colloquial/literary, slang/ standard, Slovak/foreign (Hungarian), kitschy/aesthetically valuable, romantic/occupational, kind-hearted/malicious, denotative/connotative, concrete/abstract. These elements are juxtaposed in the text. Free transitions from one extreme to the other within each dichotomy result in the blabber of individual characters, which is one of the most typical features of Radošina theatre productions. It creates the effect of free speech, full of unexpected ideas, puns and absurd nonsense, when each of the characters says whatever is on his mind, thus characterizing himself and contributing to the overall meaning of the production. The decipherment of these puns is not at all low-class entertainment but an intellectual play which can be fully enjoyed only by a viewer that is well-oriented and perceptive and that understands all the semantic levels that the author mediates through his characters in great numbers and with persistence and nonchalance.
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