Uma biblioteca teatral brasileira : publicação, circulação e políticas para edições de teatro (1917-1948)

Abstract

Researching theater publications demands a careful consideration of the specificities of their functions and modes of reception, since the topic is situated at the intersection of theatrical and literate practices. This work focuses on the universe of publications of the genre that were produced and circulated in Brazil during what we consider to be the first moment of modernization of Brazilian theater, between 1917 and 1948, that is to say, from the foundation of the Brazilian Society of Theater Authors (Sociedade Brasileira de Autores Teatrais, SBAT) to the creation of the Brazilian Comedy Theater (Teatro Brasileiro de Comédia, TBC). The “library” in this work’s title is an imaginary one, as it brings together projects, various writing and publishing initiatives, a range of collecting, selling, and safeguarding practices, as well as the circulation of printed plays and other works about theater. With that in mind, the study encompasses a transnational circuit that ranges from modes of publication to reading practices, which formed frameworks for “theater people” at the time. Starting from the idea of a theatrical library and considering the genesis of this phenomenon, we analyze the relationships between attitudes towards written theater, modernization projects for this art, and the circulation of ideas, embodied in the salvationist imaginaries of renewal, nationalization, seriousness of the repertoire, civilization ideals, the affirmation of authorship, state intervention, and the opposition between “high art theater” and commodification. Such ideals are seen in the light of the technical conditions that characterized the publishing market in these years, in order to establish a guiding path amid ephemeral printed matter linked to the stages, collections, professional associations, canonical works of “universal theater”, specialized bookstores, state projects, real libraries, and editorial strategies. Thus, when outlining the establishment of a theatrical written culture and a written theatrical culture, we highlight the relationships between modern theater and the appreciation of literate culture, inserted in a context of affirmation of artistic modernism and conformation of a national identity based on official policies and the redefinition of French influence as an agent for the circulation of works and for the representations about the modern.