Public Events as Theatrical Performance

In the following article we will utilize dramaturgical analysis to analyse two selected state-organized public events in Slovakia. We contend that public events serve political elites as a tool to manifest their superiority and perform sovereignty, legitimate social hierarchy by constructing an ideological “false consciousness”, and produce social cohesion and solidarity by invoking culturally significant symbols. As the objects of our analysis we selected the commemoration of the Slovak national uprising and the ceremonial unveiling of the sculptures of St. Constantine and Methodius. Both of these events can be defined as celebrations of the Slovak state as well as of the Slovak nation