Paratexts in the New Polish Drama

Contemporary authors writing for the theater expose a linguistic shape of dramas in their works, and consequently they apply numerous paratextual forms. The role of paratexts is by no means restricted to their instrumental function only; stage directions and self-referential remarks are more than simple stage guidelines or information about the elements of the world depicted.

There have been many studies on essential functions of paratexts in drama. This paper is a kind of supplement where three noticeable strategies of the author will be discussed, consisting in including paratexts in the drama. These are the following compositional solutions: 1) entering in the drama dialogue the expanded fragments of narration, being autonomous entireties, which are marked as subsequent scenes; 2) using subheadings which begin individual fragments of the text and which are ironic counterpoints of the content of dialogues; 3) enriching the text with amusing comments which are examples of the author’s word-formative and stylistic show; these fragments indicate that what is more important than the work’s mimetic power is the anatomy of drama as a collection of words which are “well cut”.

The above-mentioned techniques of composition are typical of literary work of a number of contemporary playwrights.