Aspectos da formação do teatro infantil no Brasil : para uma revisão da história mal contada do teatro para crianças e jovens no país

Abstract

This work results in the investigation and analysis of theatre plays published by children and young people from 1896 until the initial years of Brazilian Military Ditactorship. Parting from 1948, when the modern Brazilian children's theatre begins, the spectacles made by professional companies became a priority as a criterion for research and investigation of works, which may have occurred in subsequent periods. The main observation line pursued while making this work, for its literary studies concern, leads to consider the theatre for children in its formation as a system, as proposed by Candido (1998; 200; 2006). According to him, an articulated system takes shape when there is a dynamical interaction and tradition continuity involving author, works and public - and, in the theatre case, it is also important to take into account the artists and technicians in the staging - balancing two force lines, in dialectical process, which oscillates between localism and cosmopolitanism, and still a critical awareness about problems of literary and theatrical creation. So, it is in the period between 1896 and the Military Dictatorship in Brazil that one can see the children's theatre constitution as a system. In this process, the found works were grouped in two periods, considering common characteristics among them, their relations with the historical context and the way they depict the new generations. From these groupings, it was intended to establish relations between social and aesthetical process, guiding the children's theatre development in the country and a critical awareness about brazilianity among authors and artists which became especialized in this artistical genre. The results show how this cultural asset is initially linked to thoughts and values that conduct to idealized behaviors and social rules, with a clear pedagogical purpose, because there is no way to separate it from erudite tradition and its focus on adults. However, some works gradually appear to break such vicious cycle and to create a distinct place far from common sense to younger readers, valuing this universe instead of despising it. It occurs due to a kind of theatre made for children and juveniles that does not underestimate the younger generation's intelligence, but questions the petrified social and aesthetical systems. Thus, by a creative and dynamical form, these works are also capable to reveal social forces passing through their structures.