6/3/21 · Research

The feminist wave of the #MeToo movement has had an impact on new works in Catalan theatre, according to a thesis by a UOC researcher

Adriana Nicolau believes that institutional mechanisms and financial resources are needed to consolidate this trend
Adriana Nicolau thesis includes an analysis of some 150 works by female authors, or by female and male writers working together, performed in theatres in Barcelona from 2000 to 2019 (Photo:  Markus Winkler, Pexels)

Adriana Nicolau thesis includes an analysis of some 150 works by female authors, or by female and male writers working together, performed in theatres in Barcelona from 2000 to 2019 (Photo: Markus Winkler, Pexels)

In the last six years the #MeToo movements, which arose in the USA, and #NiUnaMenos, created in Latin America, have driven a global feminist movement which has been transferred to many areas of society, and the theatre is no exception. For example, this year cases of sexual harassment and abuse of power in the Institut del Teatre have been made public and these had been occurring for decades. Similarly, since 2015 new work in Catalan theatre has clearly reflected the influence of feminist movements. This is one of the main conclusions of the doctoral thesis by Adriana Nicolau, a philologist and researcher at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), who also considers that institutional support is needed to consolidate this trend.

Adriana Nicolau’s thesis, entitled Feminismes al teatre català contemporani (2000-2019) (Feminism in Contemporary Catalan Theatre (2000-2019)), supervised by Dr Teresa Iribarren Donadeu as part of the Information and Knowledge Society doctoral programme, includes an analysis of some 150 works by female authors, or by female and male writers working together, performed in theatres in Barcelona in the seasons from 2000-2001 to 2018-2019.

The researcher, who produced her thesis with a grant from the UOC and is a member of the LiCMES research group, poses two main questions: What has been the overall impact of feminism in Catalan theatre? And how has it manifested itself in the composition of theatrical works? The study is based on a wide-ranging view of feminism, from a gender and intersectional perspective.

These are questions which had not hitherto been answered: “In other traditions, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world, these matters have been studied, and here we have had the pioneering scholar Maria José Ragué Arias, but no one continued her work”, Nicolau points out.

Three feminist themes, three iconic works

Over a period of four and a half years, the author, as well as contacting over a hundred writers, has analysed a total of 148 works and has developed an extensive database, from which she has concluded that there are three main narrative discourses or themes which demonstrate the impact of feminism in contemporary Catalan theatrical works.

The first of these themes is Divisions, in which the main characters, mostly women, appear on the stage divided into two or more characters, to show how the heteropatriarchal social and cultural imaginary creates internal conflicts in them. This is the case of one of the works Nicolau analyses in depth, Una gossa en un descampat (2018), where the protagonist, a woman who has had a miscarriage, is divided into two characters who address each other.

The second theme is Transits, real or imaginary displacements, “going against the limits of classical discourse, which represents identity as natural, to assert that identity is constructed socially”, the researcher says. She illustrates this with Limbo (2015), which features a transsexual boy.

Finally, according to Nicolau, another feature common to many of the works analysed is Genealogy, the representation of the lives or experiences of women in earlier generations, who may be historical figures or ordinary people. “This refers to the strategies contemporary women have for dealing with the lack of models and for rethinking themselves”, the author explains. In this case she carries out an in-depth analysis of Cabaret diabòlic (2003), where six women transform guilt into disobedience.

The importance of recognizing post-feminist creators

Adriana Nicolau points out that, although the impact of feminism in recent years has been more extensive, “it is very important to recognize the women who worked hard before that, even though it was not spoken about so much, because we were in the post-feminist era, in the 1990s and 2000s, when feminism was said to be an outdated movement, because women had gained access to the labour market”.

Consequently, the UOC researcher does not consider that the conclusions of her thesis indicate that the impact of feminism is here to stay, and calls for more involvement on the part of institutions, as many advances have been the work of private or alternative theatres and companies: “The impact of feminism on contemporary Catalan theatre cannot be said to have received institutional encouragement. It has, rather, occurred despite the structures that predominate in the field of theatre, which are very unbalanced, for numerous reasons that go beyond gender”.

Goals for the immediate future

Regarding the impact of her thesis, Nicolau believes that “it would be very interesting if people in the theatre world read it, because it invites one to reflect on the impact of patriarchal dynamics in the theatre and on feminist practices which have not received sufficient attention from the profession”.

Concerning the goals she believes Catalan theatre should set itself for the immediate future, she considers it indispensable for feminists to be in positions of power and for them to establish mechanisms for policies such as gender-balanced programming to be maintained over time. She has the following proposal for the Institut del Teatre: “I would encourage them to have at least one subject on questions of gender and the theatre, because there is a substantial, really interesting bibliography”.

This research by the UOC promotes Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Gender Equality

Reference document:

Adriana Nicolau. Feminismes al teatre català contemporani (2000-2019) Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) (2021) http://openaccess.uoc.edu/webapps/o2/handle/10609/130895

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