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The Feminist Struggle in Performing Arts in Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2021

Abstract

This article summarizes recent transformations in the field of performing arts in Brazil, with attention to feminist theatrical production. It provides a description of the context of this branch of Brazilian political theatre, between the civil–military coup of 1964 and the present, focusing on 2015, a period named the Brazilian ‘Feminist Spring’. This historical arc of almost sixty years celebrates groups and artists which represent the dissemination of feminist discussion and poetics in all kinds of performative events in the theatrical field, as well as revealing the backlash represented by the anti-feminist policies of the Bolsonaro government, elected in late 2018.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2021

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References

Notes

1 Schwarz, Roberto, ‘Altos e baixos da atualidade de Brecht’, in Schwarz, Sequências brasileiras (São Paulo: Cia. das Letras, 1999), pp. 113–48Google Scholar.

2 Sarti, Cynthia Andersen, ‘O feminismo brasileiro desde os anos 1970: Revisitando uma trajetória’, Revista Estudos Feministas, 12, 2 (2004), pp. 3540CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here p. 35, at https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/ref/article/view/S0104-026X2004000200003/7860 (accessed 10 November 2020).

3 In Brazilian culture, the term ‘speech space’ was valued in the debates of black feminism, and disseminated with the launch of the book O que é lugar de fala? (What Is a Place of Speech?) by Djamila Ribeiro, questioning which social groups can speak and be heard in Brazilian society as well as the silences resulting from the racist and monophonic structure in force in Brazil. The author explains the intention of the book that the term sums up: ‘here, above all, one fights to break with the regime of discursive authorization’. Djamila Ribeiro, O que é lugar de fala? (Belo Horizonte: Letramento, 2017), p. 70.

4 According to the Capulanas Cia. de Artes Negra, they create theatre in the wake of other important Brazilian black women, such as the post-abolitionist intellectual Maria Nascimento do Vale; the choreographer and intellectual Margarida da Trindade; and the actress, playwright and activist Thereza Santos, who worked in black theatrical groups and anti-racist political organizations. The group defines its work as deconstruction of privileges that the Brazilian theatre perpetuates, as ‘a social event for a few’. See Capulanas, ‘A saúde da mulher negra sobe ao palco em produção da periferia paulistana’, Rede Brasil Atual (Sandra Stefanel, 29 September 2013), at www.redebrasilatual.com.br/cultura/2013/09/a-saude-da-mulher-negra-sobe-ao-palco-em-producao-da-periferia-paulistana-8273 (accessed 20 January 2021).

5 Marina Rossi, ‘Corte ou contingenciamento, quem está certo na guerra de narrativas da educação?’, El País (Coluna Educação, Brazil), 2 June 2019, at https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2019/05/31/politica/1559334689_188552.html (accessed 10 November 2020).

6 The Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel – Capes (connected to the support of postgraduate programmes and basic-education teacher training), and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development – CNPq (associated with the Ministry of Science and Technology and related to the support of researchers, at the postgraduate, undergraduate and high-school levels).

7 Programa Institutos e Universidades Empreendedoras e Inovadoras/Future-se (Entrepreneurial and Innovative Institutes and Universities Program/Future-se).

8 Jair Bolsonaro and Diego Maia, ‘Bolsonaro propõe reduzir verba para cursos de sociologia e filosofia no país’, Jornal Folha de São Paulo, 26 April 2019, at www1.folha.uol.com.br/educacao/2019/04/bolsonaro-propoe-reduzir-verba-para-cursos-de-sociologia-e-filosofia-no-pais.shtml (accessed 3 November 2020).

9 Nexo Jornal, ‘Investimento em pesquisa no Brasil por área, gênero e modalidade’, Nexo Jornal Ltda Online, 24 January 2017, at www.nexojornal.com.br/grafico/2017/01/24/O-investimento-em-pesquisa-no-Brasil-por-%C3%A1rea-g%C3%AAnero-e-modalidade (accessed 3 November 2020).

10 Observatório 3o. Setor, ‘Mulheres na ciência: Os desafios e conquistas de ontem e hoje’, Observatório do Terceiro Setor, 13 August 2019, at https://observatorio3setor.org.br/carrossel/mulheres-na-ciencia-os-desafios-e-conquistas-de-ontem-e-hoje (accessed 3 November 2020).

11 ‘The Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes), an organization of the Ministry of Education (MEC), in an anonymous statement, refused to fund the International Congress on Constitutionalism and Democracy, with a budget available for events, according to Public Notice 07/2019/CAPES’, reported in Carta Capital Magazine. See Grazielly A. Baggenstoss, ‘Ciência sob censura’, Revista Carta Capital (Coluna Justiça), 15 August 2019, at www.cartacapital.com.br/justica/ciencia-sob-censura (accessed 3 November 2020).

12 Vieira Romano, Lúcia Regina, De quem é esse corpo? A performatividade do gênero feminino no teatro contemporâneo – cruzamentos entre processos criativos das mulheres, cena e gênero (São Paulo: Unesp, 2017)Google Scholar.

13 In an event at UFBA (Federal University of Bahia), in 2019, the North American activist spoke: ‘When black women move, the whole structure of society moves with them, because everything is destabilized from the base of the social pyramid where black women meet. This changes, the basis of capitalism changes.’ See Andréa Martinelli (Angela Davis), ‘Quando as mulheres negras forem realmente livres, o mundo será livre’, Agência Patrícia Galvão (Destaques), 21 October 2019, at https://agenciapatriciagalvao.org.br/destaques/angela-davis-quando-as-mulheres-negras-forem-finalmente-livres-o-mundo-sera-livre (accessed 3 November 2020).