Esta tese investiga a relação do Estado com o teatro no Brasil no período de 1822 a 1889, por meio da subvenção às Artes Cênicas. Procura relacionar a documentação produzida pelo executivo e o legislativo dedicada ao teatro aos debates dos homens de letras sobre a questão teatral nos periódicos do Rio Janeiro. Investiga o patrocínio às Artes e à Literatura, na França do XVII e a assimilação desse modelo em Portugal durante o século XVIII e no Brasil a partir do XIX. Examina a ação da Revue des Deux Mondes na divulgação do teatro francês no Brasil. Analisa o alvará de 1771, primeira legislação produzida em Portugal para a normatização dos teatros públicos do reino e a sua permanência no Brasil após o processo de independência. Contribui com documentos novos para aprofundamento do estudo da história do teatro brasileiro. / This thesis investigates the relation between the State and the theatre in Brazil during 1822 and 1889, through the subvention to the Scenic Arts. It tries to correlate the documents produced by the Executive and the Legislative dedicated to the theatre and to the debates from the academic man regarding the theatrical matter on Rio de Janeiro papers. It studies the sponsorship to the Literature and Arts during the XVII in France and the uptake of the same model during XVIII in Portugal and in Brazil from XIX. It examines the action of Revue des Deux Mondes regarding the promotion of the French theatre in Brazil. It analyses the 1771 Permit, first legislation produced in Portugal seeking the regulation of the realm public theatres and its continuance in Brazil after the independence process. It contributes with new documents for a deep study of the Brazilian theatre history.

Esta tese investiga a relação do Estado com o teatro no Brasil no período de 1822 a 1889, por meio da subvenção às Artes Cênicas. Procura relacionar a documentação produzida pelo executivo e o legislativo dedicada ao teatro aos debates dos homens de letras sobre a questão teatral nos periódicos do Rio Janeiro. Investiga o patrocínio às Artes e à Literatura, na França do XVII e a assimilação desse modelo em Portugal durante o século XVIII e no Brasil a partir do XIX. Examina a ação da Revue des Deux Mondes na divulgação do teatro francês no Brasil. Analisa o alvará de 1771, primeira legislação produzida em Portugal para a normatização dos teatros públicos do reino e a sua permanência no Brasil após o processo de independência. Contribui com documentos novos para aprofundamento do estudo da história do teatro brasileiro. / This thesis investigates the relation between the State and the theatre in Brazil during 1822 and 1889, through the subvention to the Scenic Arts. It tries to correlate the documents produced by the Executive and the Legislative dedicated to the theatre and to the debates from the academic man regarding the theatrical matter on Rio de Janeiro papers. It studies the sponsorship to the Literature and Arts during the XVII in France and the uptake of the same model during XVIII in Portugal and in Brazil from XIX. It examines the action of Revue des Deux Mondes regarding the promotion of the French theatre in Brazil. It analyses the 1771 Permit, first legislation produced in Portugal seeking the regulation of the realm public theatres and its continuance in Brazil after the independence process. It contributes with new documents for a deep study of the Brazilian theatre history.

La dramaturgie fut la première des ambitions machadiennes. Une oeuvre de poète exalté s’il en est, sobrement contenue pourtant, à la fois discrète en surface et bouillonnante en sourdine. Elle s’impose ainsi harmonieusement classique dans sa facture et dans sa tenue. Sur un plateau réduit à sa plus simple expression et dans une trame débarrassée du superflu, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis confère à la langue théâtrale de ses comédies, une prose poétique et lyrique, une charge nouvelle, faite de vertige, de nervosité, qui déroute et innove dans le paysage esthétique brésilien des années 1860-1870. Sa démarche de dramaturge ne sera guère comprise, voire méjugée, jusqu’à être réduite au silence par l’ensemble de la critique et de l’historiographie du théâtre brésilien du XIXe siècle. Le XXe siècle, à quelques exceptions près, agira de même. C’est ainsi qu’il incombe aux interprètes de porter ce théâtre à la scène, de l’ancrer physiquement et concrètement, sans phrasé affecté ou trop de lyrisme. À cette seule condition, alors, peut-être, pourront sourdre des tempêtes intérieures. Il y a chez cet écrivain, une volonté farouche et affichée de dégager, dans une démarche consciente et mesurée, une synthèse viable pour asseoir durablement la dramaturgie brésilienne de son époque. Tout à l’écriture de ses pièces, il débuta une carrière de critique théâtrale qui hisse l’exercice à un véritable magistère, tant le genre souffrait, avant son passage dans la presse carioca, d’un discrédit et d’un manque de légitimité. Le journaliste, le chroniqueur, livre un corpus hétérogène qui fait de sa critique une activité plus complexe qu’on n’a bien voulu le dire. Elle devient un lieu de tensions paradoxales pour appréhender et penser le théâtre autrement. Partant, Machado – qui n’a pas encore trente ans – conférera à la discipline une autonomie jamais démentie depuis, et confortera sa place sur la scène intellectuelle brésilienne. Cette réflexivité critique, cet engouement pour le théâtre dans toute son étendue, enfin sa maîtrise de l’art dramatique, irradient, contaminent en profondeur l’écriture de ses contes et de ses romans les plus aboutis. Son immense fortune critique, sans contredit, doit tout à l’art du romancier inclassable et indompté – le plus grand prosateur brésilien – qu’il fut et offusque donc, le dramaturge. Il reste que par le théâtre et à travers lui, l’écrivain carioca livre une matière fictionnelle incandescente, labyrinthique, en lien organique avec la matière sociale et historique, en somme, un matériau artistiquement achevé, vibrant, lucidement classique. / Machado de Assis’first ambition ever was Drama. His is the work of an exalted poet, though sober and contained, apparently discreet and inwardly irrepressible: it sets itself as harmoniously classic in facture. On stage and with effective plots, Machado de Assis provided the theatrical language, which he utterly mastered, with a new function, made of the restlessness and excitability that disturbed and renewed Brazilian theatre in the 1860s and 70s from an aesthetical point of view. His approach as a playwright would cause misunderstanding and unsettle contemporary critics of his time, to date. Interprets have to take his theatre onto the stage, to root it physically and concretely, avoiding too much affectation or lyricism. On that condition only will underlying conflicts become apparent. In Machado, there is a definite, aware restlessness in willing to make a viable sum so as to durably lay the foundations of Brazilian dramaturgy of his time. In parallel, the writer started a career as a theatre critic, hoisting the practice to a high office, as indeed the genre had, before him, been widely despised as lacking legitimacy. Here, the journalist and chronicle writer presents a more heterogeneous body of works showing a complexity still overlooked to date: it became a space of paradoxical tensions to understand and think theatre in a different way. Hence, Machado – a young man of not thirty years of age – would provide the discipline with an autonomy still standing today and comfort his own significance in the theatrical and intellectual milieu of his time. Such critical reflexivity, such passion for drama in general and, finally such mastery of dramatic art, would illuminate the writing of his most accomplished short stories and novels. His immense legacy as a critic undeniably owes everything to his talent as an original and wild, untamed novelist – the greatest Brazilian prose writer of all times. The playwright is overshadowed by the novelist. Nevertheless, through his theatre, Machado de Assis presents a live and labyrinthine matter, intimately linked with the social and historical fabric of his time: an artistically though unaccomplished, and far from consensual, material.

Dall’inizio del XXI secolo, i drammi portoghesi e brasiliani ispirati all’antichità classica, prima trascurati o semplicemente ignorati dalla critica internazionale, sono stati oggetto di più ampio e sistematico studio, in relazione sia alle fonti antiche sia alla produzione moderna analoga. Nondimeno, in tale contesto hanno spesso prevalso prospettive o interessi nazionali; inoltre, la ricerca si è di solito concentrata su singoli miti, personaggi, motivi. Una ricognizione complessiva sarebbe a questo punto utilissima, ma non è ancora disponibile. La presente tesi è appunto volta a offrire un contributo in tale direzione, attraverso una mappatura ragionata della maggior parte delle opere pertinenti: tutte quelle concernenti i tre principali cicli mitici (argonautico, tebano, troiano). Secondo il mio censimento, il sorprendente corpus consta di tredici drammi (sei portoghesi e sette brasiliani) per il primo ciclo, ventuno (quattordici portoghesi e sette brasiliani) per il secondo e ventidue (diciotto portoghesi e quattro brasiliani) per il terzo. / Since the turn of the 21st century, the Portuguese and Brazilian dramas inspired by the classical antiquity, previously overlooked or simply ignored by international critics, have been subject of more widespread and systematic studies, in connection with both their ancient references and similar modern production. Nevertheless, in this context national perspectives or interests have often been predominant; furthermore, research has usually concerned individual narratives, characters or motives. A comprehensive survey would be now very useful, but it is not yet available. The present thesis is just meant to offer a contribution in this regard, by providing an annotated map of most of the relevant works: all those which belong to the three main mythical cycles (Argonautic, Theban, Trojan). According to my data, the striking corpus consists in thirteen plays (six Portuguese and seven Brazilian) for the first cycle; twenty-one (fourteen Portuguese and seven Brazilian) for the second, and twenty-two (eighteen Portuguese and four Brazilian) for the third.