Entre espectacularización y censura: Subjetividades negras en el teatro brasileño de mediados del siglo XIX

Abstract:This article examines the representation of enslaved men and women in mid-nineteenth-century Brazilian theatre. It focuses on and analyzes O demônio familiar (1857) and Mãe (1860) by José Martiniano de Alencar in the context of the foundation of the Conservatório Dramático Brasileiro in Rio de Janeiro, whose objective was to read, evaluate, and authorize plays for staging. I suggest that the spectacular representations of enslaved people should be interpreted as controlled and ritualized enunciations that, before reaching the public, had the approval of a group of journalists and writers who had the power to authorize, request modifications, or prohibit the performance. As spaces for confrontation and debate, theaters provided the forum in which Brazilians rehearsed new dynamics of social relations while grappling with questions regarding the role of Afro-descendants in a modern nation.