2019 Year 12 IB Extended Essays

perfection, that the arts and sciences correct nature in all its faults, and at the same time are interrelated under the domain of a sovereign art which deals with all men, with all they do, and all that is done for them: Politics. ’ (Boal, Augusto, Theatre of the Oppressed. 1985) Central to Boal’s’ beliefs was the stance that Life and theatre are related enterprises. “Theatre is Politics. Everything is Politics.” (Boal, Augusto, Theatre of the Oppressed. 1985) In establishing the theory of Theatre of the Oppressed, Boal contrived that in whatever Political system, the function of Art is to ‘immobilize society by perpetuating the existing system.’ The structure of Aristotle's tragedy, of western media and entertainment, is a system of intimidation. As Boal articulates: ‘It is designed to bridle the individual, to adjust to him to what pre-exists.’ Boal develops Poetics of the Oppressed, as a response to his conceptualization of Theatre. He explores the role of tragedy, feudal abstraction, bourgeois concretion, institutions of absolute power, conflict of wills, characteristics of dramatic poetry, etc. Ultimately, he combines analysis and theory to cement new meaning to the purpose of theatre, and the purpose of art. Theatre of the Oppressed is an artistic medium of revolution. The movement, Brechtian in its social engagement, takes its name from “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” a 1968 education manifesto by the philosopher Paulo Freire. (Freire, Paulo 1993) ‘If on the contrary, we want to stimulate the spectator to transform his society, engage in his revolutionary action, in that case, we will have to seek another poetics!’ (Boal, Augusto 1979)

Its methods delegate and distribute power amongst its members equally. As an instigator for social change, the forum forces the individual to present tangible ideas and solutions.

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