Abstract
At first glance, Wolfgang Bauer’s microdramas, written in the 1960s, appear to be nothing more than funny little jokes about the dramatic genre and its conventions. Based on the assumption that they also had a considerable provocative - and even political - potential, especially in the conservative context of Austria in the 1960s, this article proposes a reflection about the relationship between the comical and the provocative dimensions of these texts. Based on studies of the characteristics and effects of Bauer’s work (Antonic [2017ANTONIC Thomas. Wolfi Bauer ist tot, es lebe Wolfgang Bauer! Werk versus Image - oder Image als Teil des Werks. In: DOSSIER WOLFGANG BAUER. Organizado por Gerhard Fuchs e Stefan Maurer. Dossieronline. 2017. http://gams.uni-graz.at/o:lg.dossier.11 (15/11/2019).
http://gams.uni-graz.at/o:lg.dossier.11...
; 20183 ANTONIC Thomas. Wolfgang Bauer: Werk, Leben, Nachlass, Wirkung. Klagenfurt e Graz, Ritter, 2018.]; Melzer [198132 MELZER, Gerhard. Wolfang Bauer – Eine Einführung in das Gesamtwerk. Königstein/Ts., Athenäum, 1981.], Waggershauser [201640 WAGGERSHAUSER, Horst. Sumpftanzen: Zur komischen Avantgarde bei Wolfgang Bauer. München, edition text + kritik, 2016.]), as well as Peter L. Berger’s (199813 BERGER Peter L. Erlosendes Lachen. Das Komische in der menschlichen Erfahrung. Tradução para o alemão de Joachim Kalka. Berlin, New York, De Gruyter, 1998.) and Uwe Wirth’s (199941 WIRTH, Uwe. Diskursive Dummheit: Abduktion und Komik als Grenzphänomene des Verstehens. Heidelberg, Winter, 1999.) studies about the comical human experience, this article proposes that Bauer’s microdramas are not just an example of a very innovative meta-theater. They may elicit a liberating, “redeeming” laughter that can also be felt as a political provocation, especially in social contexts marked by essentialist and/or fundamentalist discourses.
Keywords:
Wolfgang Bauer; microdramas; comical experience