This thesis suggests that journalistic theatre criticism is a necessary and vital aspect of the theatre, promoting a healthy theatre community and culture. A healthy theatre community is supported by critics and artists alike, and is one where citizens are excited about the theatre, desiring to participate and engage with it often. It is one where artists and spectators listen, respect, and trust one another, being open to opinions and suggestions that may enhance and improve the theatre community. A healthy theatre community strives to provide theatre that may be multi-faceted in purpose, but allows for opportunities to challenge, uncover, teach, or simply entertain to become magnified, creating transformative experiences within the viewers. In the most utopic state, healthy theatre causes epiphanies that provide glimpses of a better world, one where individuals and societies may know peace. These interactions, with the magic that theatre can bring, may benefit communities on a level ultimately akin to changing the world. Journalistic criticism supports such healthy theatre by increasing interest and viewership, contributing to the theatre's growth, and recognizing ways in which it can utilize its deepest potential. In this thesis, I have performed qualitative and action research in order to evaluate myself as a critic. The thesis also explores how criticism functions in our society and, further, how it should function. I have analyzed various theatrical reviews I have written, and placed them into three sections, each representing a distinct element of theatre criticism. These elements comprise the most fundamental and vital functions of a review that leads to a healthy and improved theatre community. These sections are: “Increasing Promotion,” “Honest and Specific Feedback,” and “Emphasizing Social Justice.” Grouping the reviews into these sections, I will identify how I have contributed to the field of theatre criticism, and to these three realms in particular. I will also be able to recognize and indicate how I can progress as a critic to help support the field of journalistic theatre criticism. This thesis is very insular, personal, and beholden to me, presenting distinct limitations. The value of this work lies primarily in giving aspiring critics the opportunity to learn from my experiences and insights. Above all, this thesis holds value because of the improved critic I have become from completing it, ultimately able to better serve people in my writing for years to come.

Orientador: Maria Betania Amoroso / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T06:38:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Litron_FernandaFelix_M.pdf: 4421948 bytes, checksum: 0c55b10659620775bbe3ecc3b680cee3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: Este trabalho ocupa-se em examinar atentamente a atuação da crítica em seu papel de mediadora e qualificadora de um fenômeno cultural e poético conhecido como ¿poesia marginal¿ que, segundo a percepção de seus críticos, surge de maneira repentina durante a década de 70. De certa forma, tal poesia foi legitimada através da antologia intitulada 26 Poetas Hoje. Para realizar a análise, foram coletadas ¿ e são reproduzidas em anexo como parte integrante de nossa pesquisa ¿ as fontes primárias dessa discussão, isto é, os artigos, reportagens, resenhas e entrevistas publicadas durante a década de 70. Vale ressaltar a importância assumida pela imprensa nos conturbados anos da ditadura militar no Brasil. Muitas vezes a ela coube instigar ou manter acesas discussões e debates culturais em meio a um clima geral de sufocamento das manifestações, fossem elas políticas ou individuais. Nas décadas de 60 e 70, especificamente, tem-se uma modalidade jornalística bastante peculiar tratada como imprensa alternativa ou nanica. Assim, serão principalmente esses jornais e revistas que darão espaço para maiores debates e apresentações da poesia marginal e da cultura alternativa do período / Abstract: This dissertation aims to examine attentively the criticism performance in its mediation and qualification role of a poetic phenomenon known as ¿poesia marginal¿ (¿marginal poetry¿) which, according its critics¿ perception, ppeared in a sudden way during the 1970¿s. In certain way, this poetry has been legitimized through an anthology entitled 26 Poetas Hoje (26 Poets Today). For this analysis, they were collected ¿ and are presented here as a final result of our research ¿ the primary sources of this discussion, that is the articles, newspaper reports, summaries and interviews published during the 1970¿s, apart from our exam on such journalistic criticism. It¿s worth emphasizing that the journalistic gender stands out in a time of repression and censorship, once it assumes a questioning function about the Brazilian culture in a period politically disturbed. Then, specifically in the 1960¿s and 1970¿s, a peculiar journalistic "modality¿ emerges treated as alternative press or ¿nanica¿ (¿tiny press¿). Therefore, it is mainly this journalist modality that will give space for larger discussions and presentations of the marginal poetry and alternative culture of its period / Mestrado / Teoria e Critica Literaria / Mestre em Teoria e História Literária