Disability Representations in Contemporary Eastern European Drama

This research article maps disability representations in contemporary Eastern European drama written in Russian. The first section problematizes the field to outline the conceptual limitations of the research. The second section explores the representational tradition of disability in Russian-language literature to contextualize the origins of contemporary drama. The third section examines twenty plays written from the 1980s to the 2020s to trace key patterns of disability representation specific to contemporary Russian-language drama. The majority of the plays under consideration employ a dramaturgy of escape—either literal or symbolic—in which disability is framed as a life condition requiring release. At the same time, protagonists with disabilities are predominantly depicted as highly agent figures, often engaging in forms of social and political activism. Taken together, these plays can be read as registering historical transformations in the enduringly fractured postcolonial condition of Eastern Europe as articulated through disability representations.