The Crisis of Theatre Criticism in the Twenty-First Century: Navigating Through the Argus Gaze

This study focuses on the crisis discourse surrounding early twenty-first century theatre criticism, discussing the challenges faced by criticism as it confronts its own existence. Criticism practices have become increasingly unsustainable within the framework of conventional discourses of authority in a rapidly changing world. In this process, criticism has become a practice that interrogates its own existence through a metacritical approach, and it has turned into a narrative of crisis. In the study, American art critic James Elkins’ Hydra metaphor, originally used to describe the state of art criticism in the twenty-first century, is adapted to theatre criticism. By adopting Elkins' approach of using a mythological metaphor, the Argus Gaze is proposed as a new model that offers an inclusive and pluralistic perspective on the future of theatre criticism. This model embraces diversity and polyphony, aiming to transform theatre criticism into a more flexible and dialogic practice that aligns with the dynamic changes of contemporary culture.