Legacies of Discourse: Special Drama and its History

Abstract

One of my goals in this paper is to unpack the cultural logics and socio-historical discourses that converge to make standing still to deliver lines more highly valued than is expressive acting on the contemporary Special Drama stage. This hierarchy of artistic values necessarily developed through assessments made in relation to other theatrical forms and styles, and it is by attending to the mutual dependency of such historical aesthetic assessments that this paper aims at making an intervention in Tamil drama historiography itself. The social standing of artists and patrons of the theatre, and the social attitudes that greet those who appear on the Tamil professional public stage, must be considered at the outset of this endeavour.