Faith, Redemption and Saudade. Civil religion and the sacred in Portuguese Theatre on the First World War

Portuguese dramaturgy about the 1914-1918 conflict is an important field for understanding the changes in attitudes towards war. But in addition, this body of drama enables us to comprehend the evolution of Portuguese civil religion and the attitudes regarding the sacred in the transition from the d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:First World War studies 2021-05, Vol.12 (2), p.111-129
Main Author: Neto, Sérgio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
civic religion
Civil religion
Dictatorship
Drama
First World War
mythology
Nationalism
Redemption
theatre
World War I
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Summary:Portuguese dramaturgy about the 1914-1918 conflict is an important field for understanding the changes in attitudes towards war. But in addition, this body of drama enables us to comprehend the evolution of Portuguese civil religion and the attitudes regarding the sacred in the transition from the demo-liberal First Republic to the Estado Novo (New State) dictatorship. In fact, after the trench experience, the propagandistic enthusiasm of the first plays was succeeded by bittersweet comedies and, during the Twenties and the Thirties, by opposing messianic nationalistic plays glorifying the war and disheartened anti-war dramas. This article, based on a set of approximately forty-five plays published between 1914 and 1940, will seek to examine its plots in order to understand how its authors interpreted phenomena like the Unknown Soldier, the so-called visions of Fatima and nationalist mythologies.
ISSN:1947-5020
1947-5039
DOI:10.1080/19475020.2022.2049840