This course unit approaches one of the major historic and literary moments that marked the path of the Portuguese Theatre, since its origin till the 18th century.
The diversity of the selected dramatic texts will be assessed through the analysis of some of the most representative works of the times in analysis. This selection of texts, which opens to a hermeneutic approach, demands full reading of the same texts.
So, the background that helps to understand the dramatic tradition led by Gil Vicente will be analyzed too. He is the Portuguese playwriter whose work (generically considered) contains both medieval and modern features, as it happens in plays such as “Auto da Barca do Inferno” and “Auto India”. Gil Vicente will be followed by the formal classicism in the dramatic production of António Ferreira, with the tragedy “Castro”. As for the Baroque, the play “O Fidalgo Aprendiz” of D. Francisco Manuel de Melo will be studied, along with the theatre reformation that the Arcadia Lusitana intended to carry out in the 18th century, especially through Correia Garção and his play Teatro Novo.