RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

shades of meaning and ideas, it can be said to create its own space, by all means imaginary but space all the same, in the mind of the Ustener, What is more, it seems to us that in an important radio drama created by a talented writer and skilled producer, this space acquires almost physically tangible outlines. I say, ”it seems to us” dehberatelv, for in real fact this is impossible. We must never allow ourselves to forget that the ”space” involved is created by sound and the sound space of a radio drama is always illusory. It can never coincide with real space. A radio drama, and this is its third basic feature, is always static in its written concept, yet in its essence it is dynamic. Every performance brings it to life in a concrete way and it reaches completeness through the aesthetic experience of the listener imposing on him the full witchcraft of its magical influence, in imagined space and time. In the strict sense, the organisation of a radio drama as ”an intersubjective aesthetic object” occurs during its performance. This is the fourth important feature of the radio drama as a work of art, its fourth vital ontological quality. The concretisation of a radio drama occurs during its performance. The essence of radio drama is that it is performed on radio using means and methods which are only suitable for that medium (radio). Radio drama in its ontic definition only exists at the moment of its performance in its concretisation. Without this moment the radio drama would not be what it is - a story woven from life which happens for us and within us at the moment we perceive its meaning and message, and translate them into the language~e£ our experience, ourselves experiencing catharsis in the process, as in Euripidean tragedy. Without its concretisation a radio drama wouid remain simply a text (drama) to be read. And it is at this point that it might be in order, methodologically speaking, to ask ourselves the question posed by Ivan F ocht in his essay ’The Ontological Limits of Art in Anaiyisng a Literary 10 .

10 Ivan Focht, "Granice ontoiogije umjetnosti u istraživanju književnog djela”, Teka, Proljeće 1977/8.