ARCHIVE OF A NOISY THEATER: echoes of an agonistics between stage and audience in Brazilian Theater (1830-1870)

• Grant number: 24/16540-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: July 31, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Theatre
• Principal Investigator: José Geraldo Vinci de Moraes
• Grantee: Luiz Paulo Pimentel de Souza
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/15032-4 - Sound archives of theater: implementation of a basis for research on the sound dimension in performing arts, AP.JP

Abstract

This project aims to consolidate an investigation into the field of relations between the theatrical scene and its audience, as documented in Brazilian newspapers between the 1830s and 1870s. During this period, theaters recorded various conflicting episodes, such as disruptive audience reactions (known as "pateadas"), political disputes, police repression, and other noisy and violent manifestations. Simultaneously, there was a noticeable increase in police presence within theaters, with the goal of controlling audience behavior, alongside the institution of censorship aimed at improving the quality of the national theater scene and educating spectators according to civilizing ideals. The nineteenth-century press emerges as a privileged source for analyzing these scandalous episodes and the disputes they entailed, as it not only describes and records these events but often embellishes them. The choice of this specific time frame and thematic focus is justified by the relevance of the press as a vehicle for thought production and the interpretation of the country's cultural reality, as well as a co-producer of controversies that shaped important political debates of the time. Based on this premise, the project aims to explore how newspapers, by documenting theatrical scandals, reveal a dynamic interplay of conduct and counter-conduct that transcends the stage and extends into the public sphere, shaping what we term the "agonistics between stage and audience." This concept, unprecedented in historical research on theater, seeks to understand how the tensions and disputes between theatergoers and performances reflected and contributed to the political and social debates of the period. Theoretically, the project aligns with Michel Foucault's approaches, particularly regarding archaeogenealogy as a method of investigating the relationships between governance, power, and the regulation of individual and collective conduct. These influences will enable not only a critical reading of journalistic texts but also a problematization of the power relations manifested in the interaction between theater and audience, mediated by the press of the time. (AU)