Contemporary Portuguese Drama
Maria João Brilhante and Rui Pina Coelho
Fall
45 contact hours
6 ECTS
Brief presentation:
All throughout the 20th century there has been the persistent idea that Portuguese authors have no “tête dramatique”. Poetry and prose seemed to express more adequately Portuguese literary sensibility. Therefore, drama has lived always tingled in the notion of a permanent crisis. However, contemporary playwrights seem to contradict this history. There is a new generation of authors that are proving that Portuguese drama is alive and, plus, one of the most inventive and plural in contemporary European theatrical landscape.
Objectives of this course:
1) to introduce and present Portuguese dramatic literature and contextualize it in the new theatrical and dramaturgical practices;
2) to exercise the analysis of plays and performances;
3) to stimulate the double articulation between dramaturgy and society and between drama and performance;
4) to research on key texts, authors and performances.
Contents:
1) Brief History of Portuguese Dramatic Literature.
Post-Second World War Portuguese Theatre and its contribution to the renovation of Portuguese theatrical landscape.
Portuguese Independent and Experimental theatre practices (1974-2000)
2) Analysis and discussion of a selected corpus:
Re-writing and appropriation of classical mythology
Hélia Correia, Hatred (Rancor)
Armando Nascimento Rosa, Mary of Magdala (Maria de Magdala)
Dialogue with the Past (in History and in Drama)
José Maria Vieira Mendes, My Wife (A minha mulher)
Jacinto Lucas Pires, Extras (Figurantes)
Stage writers: performance and literature
Patrícia Portela, Flatland Trilogy (Flatland I, Flatland II, Flatland III)
Tiago Rodrigues, Sadness and joy in the life of giraffes (Tristeza e alegria na vida das girafas)
GRADING
30% A paper on one of the plays (1500 words, ½ space)
20% Attendance and in-class participation. Please note that attendance is mandatory.
50% Final exam
Bibliography:
ARISTOTLE. 1997. Poetics, Penguin Classics.
CAMPBELL, Patrick (ed.). 1996. Analyzing Performance: A Critical Reader. Manchester: Manchester University Press
FUCHS, Elinor. 1996. The Death of Character: Perspectives on Theater after Modernism (Drama and Performance Studies). Indiana: Indiana Univ. Press
LEHMANN, Hans-Thies. 2006. Postdramatic Theatre. London& New York: Routledge
PAVIS, Patrice. 2003. Analyzing Performance: Theatre, Dance and Film. Michigan: Univ. of Michigan Press
WALLIS, Mick & SHEPHERD, Simon. 1998. Studying Plays. London: Arnold
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