Absurd and censorship in the Portuguese scene: a study of the theater by Prista Monteiro

• Grant number: 12/07604-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: October 01, 2012
• End date: March 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Other Vernacular Literatures
• Principal Investigator: Renata Soares Junqueira
• Grantee: Márcia Regina Rodrigues
• Supervisor: Maria João Brilhante
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
• Associated to the scholarship: 10/20052-7 - ABSURD AND CENSORSHIP IN THE PORTUGUESE SCENE: A STUDY OF THE THEATER BY PRISTA MONTEIRO, BP.DR

Abstract

The critics and historians of the Portuguese theatre indicate the decade of 1960 as the most fecund moment of theatrical activity during the dictatorship; however, it was also in this period in which the theatre suffered the most with censorship actions from the dictatorial regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Despite the censorship, there were formal attempts that resembled experimentalism, the epic theatre of Brecht, or the theatre of the absurd, leading to a significant change in the Portuguese scene. The main goal of this project is to show that these theatrical experimentations - namely the theatre of the absurd - were not only connected to a wish of resistance and objection to the political regime in force, but also extremely tied to the attempts of theatrical revival. For that matter, the primary corpus of this research are some plays by Helder Prista Monteiro (1922 - 1994), considered by critics one of the most productive exponents of the theatre of the absurd in Portugal, and one of the few authors whose work had access to stages before the Revolução dos Cravos (Carnation Revolution). Intending to make the mass of his theatrical production more known in Brazil, we seek to highlight (through analysis and interpretation) the plays by this dramatist that were effectively staged prior to April 25th, taking into account, as a starting point for this research, the approximation of this dramaturgy to what has been called "theater of the absurd", and, then, the response received by the plays and their relation with the political moment in question. (AU)