Boris Senker

Boris Senker, a Croatian theatre scholar, theatre critic, lexicographer, writer, and translator, was born in 1947 in Zagreb. He completed his secondary education in Pula. He studied comparative literature and English at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, graduating in 1971, and earned his doctorate in 1982 with a dissertation on the theatrical work of Milan Begović. He teaches at the Department of Theatre Studies and Film Studies within the Department of Comparative Literature, where he has been Professor Emeritus since 2018. He has been a regular member of HAZU (Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts) since 2012. Since the early 1970s, he has been writing scholarly articles, studies, essays, and papers on Croatian and world drama literature and theatre, with a focus on the 20th century; running the theatre chronicle in the journal Republika (1985–91; 1995–2000) and translating scholarly literature from English. He has published the books Redateljsko kazalište (Director’s Theatre), Sjene i odjeci (Shadows and Echoes), Kazališni čovjek Milan Begović (Theatrical Man Milan Begović), Begovićev scenski svijet (Begović’s Stage World), Pogled u kazalište (A View into Theatre), Hrvatski dramatičari u svom kazalištu (Croatian Playwrights in Their Theatre), Zapisi iz zamračenog gledališta (Notes from a Dark Auditorium), Kazališne razmjene (Theatre Exchanges), Pozornici nasuprot (Opposite the Stage), Bard u Iliriji (Bard in Illyria), Uvod u suvremenu teatrologiju (I–II, 2010–13) (Introduction to Contemporary Theatre Studies), and Teatrološki fragmenti: o suvremenoj hrvatskoj drami i kazalištu (Theatrological Fragments: On Contemporary Croatian Drama and Theatre). He edited the two-volume Hrestomatija novije hrvatske drame (Chrestomathy of Modern Croatian Drama) and, at the Miroslav Krleža Lexicographical Institute, was the chief editor of the two-volume retrospective Bibliografija rasprava i članaka: kazalište u Hrvatskoj i Bosni i Hercegovini (1826–1945) (Bibliography of Papers and Articles: Theatre in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1826–1945). In collaboration with Tahir Mujičić and Nina Škrab, he wrote about fifteen dramatic works. As a theatre scholar, Senker has focused particularly on the European context of Croatian drama and theatre, aiming to describe the influence of theoretical ideas on theatrical practice and connecting the dramatic works of domestic authors with what was happening on world stages in their time.