Inventário de uma memória consagrada: Benjamim Santos nos interstícios do Teatro Pernambucano (1960-1970)

Abstract

This doctoral thesis analyzes the constitution of an “official memory” to the theater of Pernambuco. In order to do that, it attempted to observe its constitution in a space marked not only by remembrances, but also by forgetfulness. At this space, this memory became possible thanks to appeal of an intellectual and artistic memory of Pernambuco wrongly dedicated to strength the feeling of “pernambucanidade”. The memory of theater in Pernambuco is set, therefore, inside a narrative that follows the trajectory of groups which had a large access to intellectual and media fields, besides huge success on stages. Groups which not only knew how to represent themselves, creating a social privileged space for themselves in the culture of Pernambuco, but also found ways to insert their journey into the collective memory. These group victories which tried to express values and traditions of Pernambuco became equivalent to the victory of the theater of Pernambuco and, by extension, to the victory of Pernambuco’s own culture; and because of that it started to get fixed into time, as its main interest is not to speak about the theater, but about Pernambuco. A state that considers itself able to lead the northeast. Pernambuco of Gilberto Freyre, Ariano Suassuna, Hermilo Borba Filho and Valdemar de Oliveira; a state of renowned intellectuals and where tradition incorporates modernity. At the same proportion, and in the opposite way, a theater which does not pay tribute or have iconoclast attitudes arise, in the official means of cultural divulgation, distrust or silence. This is what happened with the theater in the second half of the 1960s, when Benjamim Santos, playwright and director, took part of it. This theater is considered “empty” by renowned narratives that attribute meanings to the collective memory for it usually has little or no space at the local historiography and in memorialist ploys. So that, this essay presents Benjamim as a mediator who enables the discussion of the consensus and the dissents related to the construction of this “official memory” of the theater of Pernambuco whose constitution is thought in a genealogic way. This way, books, newspapers and individual memories were analyzed in order to think this memory creation in an ambience from which it did not emerge fully, caused by a meaning anticipatory potency, but as the result of vague happenings, possible result of casual domination games. The essay is linked to the “Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisa em Patrimônio e Memória – GEPPM – UFC/ CNPq”.