Diego Santos Sánchez | Universidad Complutense de Madrid (original) (raw)
Authored Books by Diego Santos Sánchez
This book characterizes Fernando Arrabal’s challenging yet overlooked Panic Theatre, conceived in... more This book characterizes Fernando Arrabal’s challenging yet overlooked Panic Theatre, conceived in Paris between 1957 and 1966. The study gives these plays consistency as a coherent theatrical language. After providing a brief state-of-the-art critical overview of the topic, an array of 14 plays is established as the corpus. This is followed by a general description of the panic ceremony as the underlying aesthetic strategy of the Panic Theatre. Drawing on Arrabal’s programmatic text Le Panique, memory, chance and confusion are singled out as the key concepts involved in his art-creation process. These principles explain the panic ceremony’s nature (narration, action and stage elements) in the chapters to follow.
Arrabal’s questioning of how memory plays part in the creative process determines a twofold strategy of neg(oti)ated narration. On the one hand, concrete plays deny links with recognizable narrative patterns altogether; on the other, an abstract theatre still negotiates a minimized, anything but straightforward narration. Both kinds of plays take narration to its limits, questioning the very notion of theatrical mimesis.
The rules of chance and the way in which they arrange the materials recalled by memory into a rigorous action are another concern of Arrabal’s theatre. An accurate description of the plays’ main patterns (cyclical, symmetric, etc.) is provided and a general definition of panic action established.
Once both the narrative and action frames have been set forth, the plays are peopled with four types of stage elements: subjects, objects, frames and words. Confusion, which Arrabal opposes to perfection, is the principle behind his filling up the stage. The Spanish word confusión allows the author a con-fusión reading: the stage elements melt (fusión) with (con) one another onstage as they implement their imperfection, ie, their utterly anti-realistic idiosyncrasy. This imperfection is displayed in various ways: the subject becomes split, the object autonomous, the spatio-temporal frame suspended and the word is stretched to its very boundaries.
This characterization opposes panic plays’ deeply experimental and avant-garde nature against the author’s previous naïve as well as later political-committed dramaturgies. It also demonstrates the Panic Theatre’s consistency as a theatrical language. It is thoroughly characterized as an organic array of plays, carrying out a great formal experimentation in unprecedented ways. The study helps to place Arrabal’s work amongst the greatest theatre written in 20th century Spain.
La enseñanza de lenguas adolece en muchos casos de un carácter rígido y académico que va en detri... more La enseñanza de lenguas adolece en muchos casos de un carácter rígido y académico que va en detrimento de la motivación del alumno. El empleo del Teatro en el aula dispara los niveles de motivación por su carácter lúdico, desenfadado y grupal. Se trata de una metodología docente innovadora y efectiva, pero que carece aún de soporte teórico. Este libro plantea una reflexión general sobre la aplicación del Teatro al aula de E/LE en una triple perspectiva. Primeramente se analiza la viabilidad del texto teatral como recurso con que trabajar el componente verbal de la lengua, a través de ejercicios puramente lingüísticos. Posteriormente se desarrolla la propuesta más rentable: que el recurso de la dramatización, tanto de textos fijados por la tradición teatral como de situaciones creadas ad hoc, es un método óptimo para trabajar los contenidos no verbales asociados a la lengua y que normalmente no se enseñan de manera intensiva: los movimientos corporales, las distancias interpersonales o la dinámica conversacional, entre otros. Por último, se reflexiona sobre la literatura dramática: como medio con que trabajar los aspectos culturales más generales (la vida cotidiana, las relaciones sociales, etc.) a través de su representación en los textos; pero también como fin en sí misma, a través del estudio de las grandes manifestaciones literario-teatrales.
Edited Books by Diego Santos Sánchez
Theatre and Dictatorship in the Luso-Hispanic World explores the discourses that have linked thea... more Theatre and Dictatorship in the Luso-Hispanic World explores the discourses that have linked theatrical performance and prevailing dictatorial regimes across Spain, Portugal and their former colonies. These are divided into three different approaches to theatre itself - as cultural practice, as performance, and as textual artifact - addressing topics including obedience, resistance, authoritarian policies, theatre business, exile, violence, memory, trauma, nationalism, and postcolonialism. This edited volume draws together a diverse range of methodological approaches to foreground the effects and constraints of dictatorship on theatrical expression and how theatre responds to these impositions.
Theatre has always been subject to a wide range of social, political, moral, and doctrinal contro... more Theatre has always been subject to a wide range of social, political, moral, and doctrinal controls, with authorities and social groups imposing constraints on scripts, venues, staging, acting, and reception. Focusing on a range of countries and political regimes, this book examines the many forms that theatre censorship has taken in the 20th century and continues to take in the 21st, arguing that it remains a live issue in the contemporary world. The book re-examines assumptions about prohibition and state control, and offers a more complex reading of theatre censorship as a continuum ranging from the unconscious self-censorship built into social structures and discursive practices, through bureaucratic regulation or unofficial influence, up to detention and physical violence. An international team of contributors offers an illuminating set of case studies informed by both new archival research and the first-hand experience of playwrights and directors, covering theatre censorship in areas such as Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Poland, East Germany, Nepal, Zimbabwe, the USA, Ireland, and Britain. Focusing on right-wing dictatorships, post-colonial regimes, communist systems and Western democracies, the essays analyze methods and discourses of censorship, identify the multiple agents involved, examine the responses of theatremakers, and show how each example reveals important features of its political and cultural contexts. Expanding understanding of the nature and effects of censorship, this volume affirms the power of theatre to challenge authorized discourses and makes a timely contribution to debates about freedom of expression through performance.
Journal Issues by Diego Santos Sánchez
Theatre and Dictatorship in the 20th Century 452ºF’s tenth issue aims at creating a space for ... more Theatre and Dictatorship in the 20th Century
452ºF’s tenth issue aims at creating a space for discussion and reflection on the links between theatre and dictatorship. There were indeed many societies that suffered some kind of dictatorial regime during the 20th century and theatre proved to be a useful tool in all of them. As opposed to other genres, theatre’s potential lays in its immediacy and collectivity – theatre is based on the direct, unmediated transmission of a message to a group of people, created, as such, for the sole purpose of receiving it. This idiosyncrasy of theatre allows a politicization of audiences to a greater degree than other genres do. Aware of that, both dictatorial regimes and their opponents have taken advantage of theatre, either to impose obedience or to promote dissention under totalitarian contexts. The contributors of this issue have focused on theatre’s uses for contestation to a broad and representative array of dictatorial regimes.
Literary Editions by Diego Santos Sánchez
De los primeros años del exilio de Álvaro de Orriols datan los dos textos incluidos en este volum... more De los primeros años del exilio de Álvaro de Orriols datan los dos textos incluidos en este volumen: Romance de Madrid, que narra la guerra en la capital hasta su caída a manos de las tropas rebeldes, y Campanarios, que se centra en el fenómeno de la lucha guerrillera contra el régimen de Franco. Salvo un modesto estreno de Romance de Madrid para la comunidad de exiliados de la zona de Bayona en 1948, el exilio ha determinado la total desconexión de estas obras del que debería haber sido su público natural. En efecto, Romance de Madrid y Campanarios nunca han sido publicadas ni representadas en España, a pesar de que ofrecen un material de gran valor que reflexiona sobre nuestro pasado más conflictivo. Este volumen pretende corregir la injusticia a la que ha sido sometido, como tantos otros, el teatro de Álvaro de Orriols.
Pavis, Patrice, Mis tres hermanas. Mes trois soeurs. My three sisters. Madrid: Cátedra Valle Inclán / Lauro Olmo del Ateneo de Madrid (2007)
Journal Articles by Diego Santos Sánchez
El presente artículo propone el concepto de los aparatos teatrales de Estado (ATEs) como una herr... more El presente artículo propone el concepto de los aparatos teatrales de Estado (ATEs) como una herramienta teórica con la que abordar el estudio de las relaciones entre teatro y dictadura. Los ATEs se definen como una serie de prácticas e instituciones teatrales a través de las que el Estado dictatorial genera, defiende, disemina e impone un discurso teatral propio que, en última instancia, se materializa en la formación del canon teatral. Esta propuesta teórica, que se sustenta en los conceptos de disciplina de Foucault y los aparatos ideológicos de Estado de Althusser, se ilustra a través del caso de la España de Franco.
This article describes the procedures of theatre censorship during the Second Republic drawing on... more This article describes the procedures of theatre censorship during the Second Republic drawing on both censorship files and legal texts. Among various censorial criteria, the political defence of the Republic stood as the most crucial task.
Drawing on censorship files, this article studies how censorship tackled the theatre written by w... more Drawing on censorship files, this article studies how censorship tackled the theatre written by women and the role of the female playwright during the last years of the Franco regime. This will be illustrated through the two most representative and popular dramatists from the seventies: Carmen Resino and Ana Diosdado. The way their work was judged by the censors will be assessed and linked with the situation of earlier female authors from the Franco period as well as with the female theatre shaped during the post-Franco era.
This article offers an overview of Fernando Arrabal’s theatre in Brazil. Following the first stag... more This article offers an overview of Fernando Arrabal’s theatre in Brazil. Following the first stagings by São Paulo amateur companies in the late fifties, two major performances in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro took place in 1968 and 1970, which boosted the author’s popularity and brought about a large number of his texts’ stagings across the country. We will also assess the excellent nature of the press reviews on these productions as well as the impact of Arrabal’s work upon Brazilian theatre.
Modern Language Review 108:4 (2013), 1156-1176
Most totalitarian regimes have tried to control theatre and turn it into a tool for propaganda. I... more Most totalitarian regimes have tried to control theatre and turn it into a tool for propaganda. In the aftermath of the Civil War (1939-1941), Franco’s regime deployed a complex theatrical agenda which can be understood in light of Althusser’s Ideological State Apparatuses as an attempt to create a discourse exclusive to the regime. This theatrical apparatus sought to create and disseminate the canon of la España eterna, recalling the concepts of Nation and Catholicism from the country’s imperial past. The first part of this article portrays this process, featuring a description of teatro de urgencia, the National Theatres issue and the recovery of Golden Age theatre.
However, this theatrical apparatus entails a great contradiction: censorship, one of its institutions, is to a large degree responsible for the failure of the National-Catholic theatrical canon. An in-depth study of some of these plays’ processes sheds light on how censorship hampered texts praising Franco and his new regime on their way to the stages. The impact of censorship in turn explains why the theatrical discourse of la España eterna failed and theatrical activity resumed pre-war trends.
Represura 8 (2013), sp.
La discusión sobre la naturaleza del teatro es tan vieja como el propio teatro. A lo largo de la ... more La discusión sobre la naturaleza del teatro es tan vieja como el propio teatro. A lo largo de la historia, las distintas épocas lo han entendido bien como un fenómeno meramente literario o bien como una realidad netamente escénica, proponiendo también una amplia gama de grises que matizaban esta distinción maniquea. Pero, más allá de la práctica, las aproximaciones epistemológicas al género han oscilado también en un péndulo teórico para el que el crítico Patrice Pavis propone una doble terminología: a la "concepción logocéntrica aristotélica" (1998: 473) le sucedería el "giro copernicano del escenario" (1998: 474). La primera concibe el espectáculo como un nivel superficial que desvía la atención de la belleza y el conflicto de la obra literaria, que se erige en verdadero objeto de estudio filológico; la segunda opción, más propia del siglo XX, deja de lado el texto y convierte la representación en el único objeto susceptible de estudio.
Revista Chilena de Literatura 83 (2013), pp. 137-159
This article explores the relationship between censorship and (re)writing in Carlos Muñiz’ theatr... more This article explores the relationship between censorship and (re)writing in Carlos Muñiz’ theatre. The study of two of his masterpieces and their censorial reports leads to the analysis of the author’s (re)writing process as an aesthetic shift to escape from censorship. This process is explored in two instances: firstly from positivism to expressionism and secondly as an enhancement of the latter. Finally the aesthetic impact of censorship in Muñiz’ theatre is assessed.
El presente artículo aborda el modo en que el régimen franquista conceptualizó a través de la cen... more El presente artículo aborda el modo en que el régimen franquista conceptualizó a través de la censura a las mujeres que escribieron teatro durante las décadas de los cuarenta y los cincuenta. No se pretende analizar el eventual carácter de género de sus obras, sino la concepción de autora que hizo el propio Franquismo. Para ello se analizan los informes de censura teatral de las dramaturgas más representadas durante esta época: Pilar Millán Astray y Julia Maura.
Si bien ambas gozaron de un gran éxito y la calidad de sus obras fue duramente juzgada por la censura, la manera en que esta catalogó a una y otra es notablemente distinta. Millán Astray fue una autora afín al régimen y en buena medida venerada por este, por lo que los informes censores loan su buena voluntad. Sin embargo, Maura presenta una moral menos amable e introduce en sus obras el adulterio, planteando desafíos de mayor índole y buscando estrategias para llevar un nuevo discurso a escena. La dureza de la censura contra ella fue excepcional, machista e hiriente, generando un nuevo discurso que sugería la existencia de temas que la mujer, en tanto que tal, no debía tratar.
Revista plays were very popular during Franco’s dictatorship. Their visual emphasis and frivolous... more Revista plays were very popular during Franco’s dictatorship. Their visual emphasis and frivolous nature contrast with the primarily text-based and innocuous mainstream theatre of the early years of Francoism. Censorship procedures applied to these plays were thus more thorough. This paper sheds light on censorship’s understanding of the genre by unpicking its censorial procedures.
This paper explores the genesis of Mariana Pineda and the problems of staging it. Lorca’s insiste... more This paper explores the genesis of Mariana Pineda and the problems of staging it. Lorca’s insistence that this play was not political did not prevent the play from being judged as such. An overview of attempts to stage the play in Primo de Rivera’s Spain, the Republic, the Civil War, and during the Franco years will be followed by a more detailed study of the last period with a focus on records of censorship concerning this text. The study of these records will shed light on the complex relation that Francoism had with Lorca as a literary figure, and on how this would determine the ban on this politically innocuous and utterly poetic play.
This book characterizes Fernando Arrabal’s challenging yet overlooked Panic Theatre, conceived in... more This book characterizes Fernando Arrabal’s challenging yet overlooked Panic Theatre, conceived in Paris between 1957 and 1966. The study gives these plays consistency as a coherent theatrical language. After providing a brief state-of-the-art critical overview of the topic, an array of 14 plays is established as the corpus. This is followed by a general description of the panic ceremony as the underlying aesthetic strategy of the Panic Theatre. Drawing on Arrabal’s programmatic text Le Panique, memory, chance and confusion are singled out as the key concepts involved in his art-creation process. These principles explain the panic ceremony’s nature (narration, action and stage elements) in the chapters to follow.
Arrabal’s questioning of how memory plays part in the creative process determines a twofold strategy of neg(oti)ated narration. On the one hand, concrete plays deny links with recognizable narrative patterns altogether; on the other, an abstract theatre still negotiates a minimized, anything but straightforward narration. Both kinds of plays take narration to its limits, questioning the very notion of theatrical mimesis.
The rules of chance and the way in which they arrange the materials recalled by memory into a rigorous action are another concern of Arrabal’s theatre. An accurate description of the plays’ main patterns (cyclical, symmetric, etc.) is provided and a general definition of panic action established.
Once both the narrative and action frames have been set forth, the plays are peopled with four types of stage elements: subjects, objects, frames and words. Confusion, which Arrabal opposes to perfection, is the principle behind his filling up the stage. The Spanish word confusión allows the author a con-fusión reading: the stage elements melt (fusión) with (con) one another onstage as they implement their imperfection, ie, their utterly anti-realistic idiosyncrasy. This imperfection is displayed in various ways: the subject becomes split, the object autonomous, the spatio-temporal frame suspended and the word is stretched to its very boundaries.
This characterization opposes panic plays’ deeply experimental and avant-garde nature against the author’s previous naïve as well as later political-committed dramaturgies. It also demonstrates the Panic Theatre’s consistency as a theatrical language. It is thoroughly characterized as an organic array of plays, carrying out a great formal experimentation in unprecedented ways. The study helps to place Arrabal’s work amongst the greatest theatre written in 20th century Spain.
La enseñanza de lenguas adolece en muchos casos de un carácter rígido y académico que va en detri... more La enseñanza de lenguas adolece en muchos casos de un carácter rígido y académico que va en detrimento de la motivación del alumno. El empleo del Teatro en el aula dispara los niveles de motivación por su carácter lúdico, desenfadado y grupal. Se trata de una metodología docente innovadora y efectiva, pero que carece aún de soporte teórico. Este libro plantea una reflexión general sobre la aplicación del Teatro al aula de E/LE en una triple perspectiva. Primeramente se analiza la viabilidad del texto teatral como recurso con que trabajar el componente verbal de la lengua, a través de ejercicios puramente lingüísticos. Posteriormente se desarrolla la propuesta más rentable: que el recurso de la dramatización, tanto de textos fijados por la tradición teatral como de situaciones creadas ad hoc, es un método óptimo para trabajar los contenidos no verbales asociados a la lengua y que normalmente no se enseñan de manera intensiva: los movimientos corporales, las distancias interpersonales o la dinámica conversacional, entre otros. Por último, se reflexiona sobre la literatura dramática: como medio con que trabajar los aspectos culturales más generales (la vida cotidiana, las relaciones sociales, etc.) a través de su representación en los textos; pero también como fin en sí misma, a través del estudio de las grandes manifestaciones literario-teatrales.
Theatre and Dictatorship in the Luso-Hispanic World explores the discourses that have linked thea... more Theatre and Dictatorship in the Luso-Hispanic World explores the discourses that have linked theatrical performance and prevailing dictatorial regimes across Spain, Portugal and their former colonies. These are divided into three different approaches to theatre itself - as cultural practice, as performance, and as textual artifact - addressing topics including obedience, resistance, authoritarian policies, theatre business, exile, violence, memory, trauma, nationalism, and postcolonialism. This edited volume draws together a diverse range of methodological approaches to foreground the effects and constraints of dictatorship on theatrical expression and how theatre responds to these impositions.
Theatre has always been subject to a wide range of social, political, moral, and doctrinal contro... more Theatre has always been subject to a wide range of social, political, moral, and doctrinal controls, with authorities and social groups imposing constraints on scripts, venues, staging, acting, and reception. Focusing on a range of countries and political regimes, this book examines the many forms that theatre censorship has taken in the 20th century and continues to take in the 21st, arguing that it remains a live issue in the contemporary world. The book re-examines assumptions about prohibition and state control, and offers a more complex reading of theatre censorship as a continuum ranging from the unconscious self-censorship built into social structures and discursive practices, through bureaucratic regulation or unofficial influence, up to detention and physical violence. An international team of contributors offers an illuminating set of case studies informed by both new archival research and the first-hand experience of playwrights and directors, covering theatre censorship in areas such as Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Poland, East Germany, Nepal, Zimbabwe, the USA, Ireland, and Britain. Focusing on right-wing dictatorships, post-colonial regimes, communist systems and Western democracies, the essays analyze methods and discourses of censorship, identify the multiple agents involved, examine the responses of theatremakers, and show how each example reveals important features of its political and cultural contexts. Expanding understanding of the nature and effects of censorship, this volume affirms the power of theatre to challenge authorized discourses and makes a timely contribution to debates about freedom of expression through performance.
Theatre and Dictatorship in the 20th Century 452ºF’s tenth issue aims at creating a space for ... more Theatre and Dictatorship in the 20th Century
452ºF’s tenth issue aims at creating a space for discussion and reflection on the links between theatre and dictatorship. There were indeed many societies that suffered some kind of dictatorial regime during the 20th century and theatre proved to be a useful tool in all of them. As opposed to other genres, theatre’s potential lays in its immediacy and collectivity – theatre is based on the direct, unmediated transmission of a message to a group of people, created, as such, for the sole purpose of receiving it. This idiosyncrasy of theatre allows a politicization of audiences to a greater degree than other genres do. Aware of that, both dictatorial regimes and their opponents have taken advantage of theatre, either to impose obedience or to promote dissention under totalitarian contexts. The contributors of this issue have focused on theatre’s uses for contestation to a broad and representative array of dictatorial regimes.
De los primeros años del exilio de Álvaro de Orriols datan los dos textos incluidos en este volum... more De los primeros años del exilio de Álvaro de Orriols datan los dos textos incluidos en este volumen: Romance de Madrid, que narra la guerra en la capital hasta su caída a manos de las tropas rebeldes, y Campanarios, que se centra en el fenómeno de la lucha guerrillera contra el régimen de Franco. Salvo un modesto estreno de Romance de Madrid para la comunidad de exiliados de la zona de Bayona en 1948, el exilio ha determinado la total desconexión de estas obras del que debería haber sido su público natural. En efecto, Romance de Madrid y Campanarios nunca han sido publicadas ni representadas en España, a pesar de que ofrecen un material de gran valor que reflexiona sobre nuestro pasado más conflictivo. Este volumen pretende corregir la injusticia a la que ha sido sometido, como tantos otros, el teatro de Álvaro de Orriols.
Pavis, Patrice, Mis tres hermanas. Mes trois soeurs. My three sisters. Madrid: Cátedra Valle Inclán / Lauro Olmo del Ateneo de Madrid (2007)
El presente artículo propone el concepto de los aparatos teatrales de Estado (ATEs) como una herr... more El presente artículo propone el concepto de los aparatos teatrales de Estado (ATEs) como una herramienta teórica con la que abordar el estudio de las relaciones entre teatro y dictadura. Los ATEs se definen como una serie de prácticas e instituciones teatrales a través de las que el Estado dictatorial genera, defiende, disemina e impone un discurso teatral propio que, en última instancia, se materializa en la formación del canon teatral. Esta propuesta teórica, que se sustenta en los conceptos de disciplina de Foucault y los aparatos ideológicos de Estado de Althusser, se ilustra a través del caso de la España de Franco.
This article describes the procedures of theatre censorship during the Second Republic drawing on... more This article describes the procedures of theatre censorship during the Second Republic drawing on both censorship files and legal texts. Among various censorial criteria, the political defence of the Republic stood as the most crucial task.
Drawing on censorship files, this article studies how censorship tackled the theatre written by w... more Drawing on censorship files, this article studies how censorship tackled the theatre written by women and the role of the female playwright during the last years of the Franco regime. This will be illustrated through the two most representative and popular dramatists from the seventies: Carmen Resino and Ana Diosdado. The way their work was judged by the censors will be assessed and linked with the situation of earlier female authors from the Franco period as well as with the female theatre shaped during the post-Franco era.
This article offers an overview of Fernando Arrabal’s theatre in Brazil. Following the first stag... more This article offers an overview of Fernando Arrabal’s theatre in Brazil. Following the first stagings by São Paulo amateur companies in the late fifties, two major performances in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro took place in 1968 and 1970, which boosted the author’s popularity and brought about a large number of his texts’ stagings across the country. We will also assess the excellent nature of the press reviews on these productions as well as the impact of Arrabal’s work upon Brazilian theatre.
Modern Language Review 108:4 (2013), 1156-1176
Most totalitarian regimes have tried to control theatre and turn it into a tool for propaganda. I... more Most totalitarian regimes have tried to control theatre and turn it into a tool for propaganda. In the aftermath of the Civil War (1939-1941), Franco’s regime deployed a complex theatrical agenda which can be understood in light of Althusser’s Ideological State Apparatuses as an attempt to create a discourse exclusive to the regime. This theatrical apparatus sought to create and disseminate the canon of la España eterna, recalling the concepts of Nation and Catholicism from the country’s imperial past. The first part of this article portrays this process, featuring a description of teatro de urgencia, the National Theatres issue and the recovery of Golden Age theatre.
However, this theatrical apparatus entails a great contradiction: censorship, one of its institutions, is to a large degree responsible for the failure of the National-Catholic theatrical canon. An in-depth study of some of these plays’ processes sheds light on how censorship hampered texts praising Franco and his new regime on their way to the stages. The impact of censorship in turn explains why the theatrical discourse of la España eterna failed and theatrical activity resumed pre-war trends.
Represura 8 (2013), sp.
La discusión sobre la naturaleza del teatro es tan vieja como el propio teatro. A lo largo de la ... more La discusión sobre la naturaleza del teatro es tan vieja como el propio teatro. A lo largo de la historia, las distintas épocas lo han entendido bien como un fenómeno meramente literario o bien como una realidad netamente escénica, proponiendo también una amplia gama de grises que matizaban esta distinción maniquea. Pero, más allá de la práctica, las aproximaciones epistemológicas al género han oscilado también en un péndulo teórico para el que el crítico Patrice Pavis propone una doble terminología: a la "concepción logocéntrica aristotélica" (1998: 473) le sucedería el "giro copernicano del escenario" (1998: 474). La primera concibe el espectáculo como un nivel superficial que desvía la atención de la belleza y el conflicto de la obra literaria, que se erige en verdadero objeto de estudio filológico; la segunda opción, más propia del siglo XX, deja de lado el texto y convierte la representación en el único objeto susceptible de estudio.
Revista Chilena de Literatura 83 (2013), pp. 137-159
This article explores the relationship between censorship and (re)writing in Carlos Muñiz’ theatr... more This article explores the relationship between censorship and (re)writing in Carlos Muñiz’ theatre. The study of two of his masterpieces and their censorial reports leads to the analysis of the author’s (re)writing process as an aesthetic shift to escape from censorship. This process is explored in two instances: firstly from positivism to expressionism and secondly as an enhancement of the latter. Finally the aesthetic impact of censorship in Muñiz’ theatre is assessed.
El presente artículo aborda el modo en que el régimen franquista conceptualizó a través de la cen... more El presente artículo aborda el modo en que el régimen franquista conceptualizó a través de la censura a las mujeres que escribieron teatro durante las décadas de los cuarenta y los cincuenta. No se pretende analizar el eventual carácter de género de sus obras, sino la concepción de autora que hizo el propio Franquismo. Para ello se analizan los informes de censura teatral de las dramaturgas más representadas durante esta época: Pilar Millán Astray y Julia Maura.
Si bien ambas gozaron de un gran éxito y la calidad de sus obras fue duramente juzgada por la censura, la manera en que esta catalogó a una y otra es notablemente distinta. Millán Astray fue una autora afín al régimen y en buena medida venerada por este, por lo que los informes censores loan su buena voluntad. Sin embargo, Maura presenta una moral menos amable e introduce en sus obras el adulterio, planteando desafíos de mayor índole y buscando estrategias para llevar un nuevo discurso a escena. La dureza de la censura contra ella fue excepcional, machista e hiriente, generando un nuevo discurso que sugería la existencia de temas que la mujer, en tanto que tal, no debía tratar.
Revista plays were very popular during Franco’s dictatorship. Their visual emphasis and frivolous... more Revista plays were very popular during Franco’s dictatorship. Their visual emphasis and frivolous nature contrast with the primarily text-based and innocuous mainstream theatre of the early years of Francoism. Censorship procedures applied to these plays were thus more thorough. This paper sheds light on censorship’s understanding of the genre by unpicking its censorial procedures.
This paper explores the genesis of Mariana Pineda and the problems of staging it. Lorca’s insiste... more This paper explores the genesis of Mariana Pineda and the problems of staging it. Lorca’s insistence that this play was not political did not prevent the play from being judged as such. An overview of attempts to stage the play in Primo de Rivera’s Spain, the Republic, the Civil War, and during the Franco years will be followed by a more detailed study of the last period with a focus on records of censorship concerning this text. The study of these records will shed light on the complex relation that Francoism had with Lorca as a literary figure, and on how this would determine the ban on this politically innocuous and utterly poetic play.
Neophilologus
Francoism maintained a historical discourse that laid the ground for National-Catholicism and put... more Francoism maintained a historical discourse that laid the ground for National-Catholicism and put the dictator on a par with the nation’s greatest myths. The discovery of the Americas and Columbus were inescapable features of this discourse. Their impact on drama is large and takes its roots from the Golden Age. However, the Franco regime only allowed epic and glorious representations and put in place various mechanisms for control. Among them, theatrical censorship guaranteed no Leyenda Negra approaches that question Spain’s historical role. Early dictatorship plays on this subject-matter were bland, lacking artistic value and praising national greatness. Later plays from the sixties, however, rejoiced in Fraga’s lifting of censorship and became more aggressive. Miralles’ Catarocolón could be considered a cornerstone in the process of demythising the discovery of the Americas. The analysis of the censorship files of this text and others reveals how censorship operated and why the censors were forced to allow the performance of these plays in the late period of Francoism.
Avignon’s Theatre Festival is comprised of two independent festivals: the (official) Festival d'A... more Avignon’s Theatre Festival is comprised of two independent festivals: the (official) Festival d'Avignon and the Off. This article surveys the two festivals, summarizing their different goals and histories, and concludes with an overview of the 2007 edition, including comments on some performances.
In this article the Theory of Motives and Strategies serves to explore the formal and thematic sp... more In this article the Theory of Motives and Strategies serves to explore the formal and thematic spheres of Guernica, a play about the bombardment of the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, written by F. Arrabal. An understanding of ceremony as a repetitive, illogical and collective language makes it the appropriate formal strategy to convey the content of war and the alienated consciousness it generates in the author.
in Manuel Aznar Soler and José Ramón López García (eds.), El exilio teatral republicano de 1939 en Sudamérica: Colombia, Venezuela, Brasil, Perú, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina y Uruguay. Sevilla: Renacimiento
in Manuel Aznar Soler y José Ramón López García (eds.), El exilio teatral republicano de 1939 en Sudamérica: Colombia, Venezuela, Brasil, Perú, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina y Uruguay. Sevilla: Renacimiento.
in Manuel Aznar Soler y José Ramón López García (eds.), El exilio teatral republicano de 1939 en Sudamérica: Colombia, Venezuela, Brasil, Perú, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina y Uruguay. Sevilla: Renacimiento.
in Hans Laugsen and Leonardo Cecchini (eds.), Conflictos de la memoria / Memoria de los conflictos. Modelos narrativos de la memoria intergeneracional en España e Italia. Copenhaguen, Museum Tusculanum Press, 2015, pp. 207-216
in M. Aznar Soler y J.R. López García (eds.), El exilio republicano de 1939. Viajes y retornos. Sevilla: Renacimiento, 2014, pp. 515-524
in A. García-Reidy et al. (eds.), Páginas que no callan. Historia, memoria e identidad en la literatura hispánica. Valencia: Universitat de València, 2014, pp. 113-124
in Francisca Vilches de Frutos, Pilar Nieva de la Paz, Manuel Aznar and José Ramón López (eds.), Género y Exilio Teatral Republicano. Nueva York/Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2014, pp. 333-345
En este trabajo se analiza un corpus de tres obras dramáticas del autor barcelonés Álvaro de Orri... more En este trabajo se analiza un corpus de tres obras dramáticas del autor barcelonés Álvaro de Orriols con el fin de estudiar el papel que en ellas desempeñan los personajes femeninos enfrentados a un conflicto bélico, que se materializa bajo tres formas: la Guerra Civil Española, el fenómeno del maquis en la España de Franco y la lucha guerrillera durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Los modelos de mujer estudiados ofrecen un abanico que va desde la pasividad de la mujer recluida al ámbito doméstico hasta la indefinición de género y sexo de la mujer guerrera, pasando por el papel activo de la mujer como enlace del maquis.
in P. Gifra-Adroher, M. Cots and G. Hambrook (eds.), Interrogating Gazes. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2013, pp. 503-512
in Ruiz Carnicer, M.A. (ed.), Falange. Las culturas políticas del fascismo en la España de Franco (1939-1975). Zaragoza: Institución “Fernando el Católico”, 2013, sp.
En el marco de la España republicana, laica, igualitaria y en buena medida federal, las artes y l... more En el marco de la España republicana, laica, igualitaria y en buena medida federal, las artes y la ciencias experimentaron un desarrollo sin precedentes que ha llevado a la crítica a hablar de "la edad de plata" de la cultura española. Los sectores más reaccionarios de la política, entre los que se encontraba la Falange, recelaban del formidable desarrollo cultural, del que culpaban en buena parte de la deriva política.
Escrituras de la resistencia armada al franquismo
Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 2022
The area of 1939 literary exile studies has gained considerable momentum in recent years, as Span... more The area of 1939 literary exile studies has gained considerable momentum in recent years, as Spanish society increasingly seeks to come to terms with its own past. The recovery and publishing of lost or unpublished texts has expanded the corpus of publicly availably literature produced by those Republicans who fled Spain during, but mostly in the aftermath of, the Spanish Civil War. This has, in turn, allowed for a vast number of studies on these texts, as well as on exile itself as a social and cultural phenomenon. However, a survey of the bibliography reveals certain shortcomings. The most striking is that the nation is often taken as an unavoidable analytical paradigm and exile is viewed from a static perspective, considered only in relation to a specific host country: exiles in Argentina, exiles in Mexico, etc. Not only does this reproduce the same deficiencies as histories of national literature (which have, in fact, excluded exiles from their narratives), but it also imposes boundaries on a phenomenon that at its core is about displacement and movement. This static approach limits analysis and to some degree also allows for what Sebastiaan Faber calls “the tendency to over-generalize, to lose track of the historical specificity of each exile experience” (2006, 16). There is growing awareness that this model cannot explain a much richer, multifaceted reality. As Mari Paz Balibrea has pointed out, “el exilio republicano español generó muchas otras realidades que aún esperan que las ordenemos en narrativas interpretadoras” (2017, 20). The need for a new historiography based on new categories and a transdisciplinary approach requires new analytical tools to appreciate exile literature by articulating it with non-mainstream and non-nation-centred narratives. This special issue aims to contribute to this broader goal by paying attention to the notion of networks. Networks are key to exile on two levels. First, exiles themselves need networks in order to operate (before leaving, in exile, when returning). Second, scholarship on exile must also adopt a network-based approach to gather knowledge that is produced in different places (Fèrriz Roure 2017). To date, the concept of the network is epistemologically absent in most studies on exile, which tend to focus on particular authors, particular literary genres, particular geographies. Another deficiency is that little has been said regarding the human side of exile, something that inevitably underlies literary practice:
El presente artículo propone el concepto deaparatos teatrales deEstado(ATEs) como una herramienta... more El presente artículo propone el concepto deaparatos teatrales deEstado(ATEs) como una herramienta teórica con la que abordar el estudio de lasrelaciones entre teatro y dictadura. Los ATEs se definen como una serie deprácticas e instituciones teatrales a través de las cuales el Estado dictatorialgenera, defiende, disemina e impone un discurso teatral propio que, en últimainstancia, se materializa en la formación del canon teatral. Esta propuesta teórica,que se sustenta en los conceptos de disciplina de Foucault y los aparatos ideoló-gicos de Estado de Althusser, se ilustra a través del caso de la España de Franco.
452ºF #11 The Routledge Concise History of World Literature Theo D'haen Londres y Nueva York:... more 452ºF #11 The Routledge Concise History of World Literature Theo D'haen Londres y Nueva York: Routledge, 2012. 201 páginas El trabajo de Theo D'haen, catedrático de literatura inglesa y comparada en la universidad de Leuven (Bélgica), propone un primer acercamiento al fenómeno de la World Literature, al que en español se hace referencia como literatura universal. En la introducción, D'haen apunta que ninguna disciplina de los estudios literarios ha conocido un éxito similar al de la World Literature en los últimos años. En efecto, desde que Goethe popularizase el término alemán Weltliteratur en el siglo XIX, la historia de la disciplina atravesó periodos de pujanza y declive hasta la llegada del siglo XXI, que le ha permitido a la World Literature ganar un papel destacado y haberse convertido en un fenómeno académico de gran pujanza no sólo en EEUU, sino también en Europa y Asia, y así adquirir una centralidad sin precedentes en el ámbito de los estudios literarios. En e...
Género y Exilio Teatral Republicano: Entre la Tradición y la Vanguardia, 2014
En este trabajo se analiza un corpus de tres obras dramaticas del autor barcelones Alvaro de Orri... more En este trabajo se analiza un corpus de tres obras dramaticas del autor barcelones Alvaro de Orriols con el fin de estudiar el papel que en ellas desempenan los personajes femeninos enfrentados a un conflicto belico, que se materializa bajo tres formas: la Guerra Civil, el fenomeno del maquis en la Espana de Franco y la lucha guerrillera durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Los modelos de mujer estudiados ofrecen un abanico que va desde la pasividad de la mujer recluida al ambito domestico hasta la indefinicion de genero y sexo de la mujer guerrera, pasando por el papel activo de la mujer como enlace del maquis.
Brumal. Revista de investigación sobre lo Fantástico, 2019
En su trabajo de reciente aparición, Carolina Suárez Hernán aborda el estudio del lenguaje litera... more En su trabajo de reciente aparición, Carolina Suárez Hernán aborda el estudio del lenguaje literario en Todos los cuentos (Tusquets, 2008), de Cristina Fernández Cubas, centrándose en cómo determinados mecanismos y recursos lingüísticos permiten la expresión de la ambigüedad y, con ella, de la incertidumbre, que tan centrales son en la literatura fantástica de la autora. De este modo, la investigadora parte de un análisis lingüístico para llegar a otro de corte literario que pretende desentrañar los resortes en que se sustenta la literatura fantástica. Se trata, en definitiva, de un trabajo que vincula los estudios lingüísticos y literarios, muy en la línea, como defiende su propia autora, de lo propuesto por Jakobson y Coseriu. Para ello, Suárez Hernán estructura su trabajo, tras una breve y descriptiva introducción, en tres partes bien diferenciadas: el segundo capítulo, dedicado al marco teórico; el tercer capítulo, centrado en la caracterización de la literatura fantástica; y el capítulo cuarto, en que aborda el estudio de la obra de Fernández Cubas. De crucial importancia es el segundo capítulo, dedicado al marco teórico, en que la autora del trabajo muestra un vasto conocimiento bibliográfico tanto
Didáctica. Lengua y Literatura, 2018
Tras una pertinente reflexión teórica, este trabajo plantea una actividad de aula para segundo de... more Tras una pertinente reflexión teórica, este trabajo plantea una actividad de aula para segundo de Bachillerato en que se trabaja el tema de los refugiados sirios a partir de un texto teatral de Max Aub que versa sobre la diáspora judía contemporánea. La actividad plantea un tema pertinente y ahonda en el tratamiento de los derechos humanos, que son un tema central para todo el periodo de la educación secundaria. Al mismo tiempo, esta actividad parte de un texto teatral e incorpora dramatizaciones y debates, recursos que contribuyen a incrementar la motivación y a producir un aprendizaje más relevante y duradero. Por último, la elección del texto redunda en la pluralización del canon literario que se maneja en el Bachillerato.
Theatre and Dictatorship in the Luso-Hispanic World, 2017
Theatre and Dictatorship in the Luso-Hispanic World explores the discourses that have linked thea... more Theatre and Dictatorship in the Luso-Hispanic World explores the discourses that have linked theatrical performance and prevailing dictatorial regimes across Spain, Portugal and their former colonies. These are divided into three different approaches to theatre itself - as cultural practice, as performance, and as textual artifact - addressing topics including obedience, resistance, authoritarian policies, theatre business, exile, violence, memory, trauma, nationalism, and postcolonialism. This book draws together a diverse range of methodological approaches to foreground the effects and constraints of dictatorship on theatrical expression and how theatre responds to these impositions.
Revista de literatura, 2017
Partiendo de los expedientes censores, este trabajo aborda el modo en que la censura de los últim... more Partiendo de los expedientes censores, este trabajo aborda el modo en que la censura de los últimos años del Franquismo entendió y gestionó el teatro escrito por mujeres y el rol de la dramaturga en el mundo teatral. Ello se ilustrará a través de las dos autoras más representativas y populares de la década de los setenta: Carmen Resino y Ana Diosdado. El modo en que la censura conceptuó su labor será puesto en perspectiva y enlazado tanto con la situación de las autoras del primer Franquismo como con la génesis de la dramaturgia femenina de la democracia.
452Of Revista De Teoria De La Literatura Y Literatura Comparada, 2014
D'HAEN, Theo. The Routledge Concise History of World Literature. Londres y Nueva York : Routl... more D'HAEN, Theo. The Routledge Concise History of World Literature. Londres y Nueva York : Routledge, 2012.