Perception of War Trauma and Deconstruction of Social Myths in the Dramas If This Were a Play and If This Were a Film by Almir Imširević

Abstract

The paper analyzes two war-themed plays by Almir Imširević. The aim of the paper is to show how war trauma has been transposed into dramatic literature. During the research, the problem of the lack of appropriate studies on recent Bosnian and Herzegovinian dramatic literature and theater emerged. The methodological starting point of the paper is based on the theoretical and analytical acquisitions (new kind of critical practice) of the American theorist Kali Tal, who investigates the dramatic effects of war trauma, namely its reflection on dramatic authors who, in their texts, problematize their own dramatic tradition and the prevailing myths on which their societies were based before the experience of trauma. The analysis of the selected dramatic texts If This Were a Play and If This Were a Film also attempted to point out their significance in the context of contemporary Bosnian and Herzegovinian dramatic literature. Imširović’s plays confirm the usable potential of the artistic text in overcoming the problem of the ineffability of trauma, and the deconstruction of social myths and taboos in them is uncompromising and thorough. In this sense, the analyzed dramatic texts represent a corpus exceptionally amenable to opening up issues of literary ethics that are crucial in the context of war writing, war trauma drama, and trauma literature in general.