Tradition and Change in Galician Theater and Language (1980-2000)
Theme 12: Tradition and Change 1980-2000 – The Theater and the Test
The Theatre: A theatrical activity of the 1970s starring Sample Theatre Beja Cultural Abrente organized by a grouping since 1973 up to 1980 marked a milestone in the history of Galician theater. In those years, samples of theater workshops and other places in Portugal also emerged. Thus, the Drama School in Madrid Galician was founded in 1978 at the initiative of Francisco and Manuel Lorenzo Pilla. It was a revival of the initiatives of the Brotherhoods of Speech. At the same time, school notebooks were created to publish new playwrights, classics, and traditions. The school was dissolved in 1984.
At the end of the 1970s, independent theater began to fade, leading to the professionalization of political and social changes occurring at the time. New projects emerged, such as the Company of Lawrence and Luis Seoane Pillar in Corunna and the Hall Capital in Ourense. In 1984, the Dramatic Galego Centre was created to encourage the development of professional theater and its standardization. Books from the CDG were also published. Today, theatrical texts are difficult to promote. Awards (similar to those in poetry and narrative) significantly influenced their publication and representation, notably the Award Theatre School Drama Short Galega. This period saw the development of the “Generation Abrente” with survivors like Manuel Lorenzo, R. Euloxio Rubial, and Roberto Vidal Bolaño.
Critics often refer to a promotion in the 1980s, which included figures like Luisa Villalta and Alberto Avedaño. The characteristics of this era include: symbolic representation, cultural commentary, immediate withdrawal from reality, and criticism infused with humor and irony. This led to a rise in professionalism and the emergence of new companies, such as Sarabela Theatre (whose last performance was the Serenade).
Critics also discussed the promotion of the 1990s, with authors becoming more involved in the genre, focusing on intertextuality, indigenous tradition, and generic models. Notable works include A Núñez Cimeala’s Comedy Bifida.
The Test: At the end of the dictatorship, with the abolition of censorship and the gradual recovery of freedom, new thematic possibilities emerged. This also affected the establishment of awards for this genre, such as the Anxeles Bellows and Raimundo Pinheiro awards. The test broke the lines that dominated the discourse of the post-war era, which had previously focused on philosophy and anthropology. The new test is characterized by thematic diversification, ideological pluralism, and the incorporation of new methods.
Studies in Portugal developed across various knowledge areas, promoting thematic areas in Portuguese that had little in common.
- Religious themes (Crossroads) with names like Jose Torres and Andrés Chao Rego Queiroga.
- Philosophical themes addressing Marxism, crises, and conflicts of our time.
- Anthropological themes targeted by new approaches.
- Economic and political themes led by José Manuel Beiras, adopting a Marxist methodology and a nationalist approach, and Carlos Mella with his work Galicia Possible.
- Historical essays highlighted the recovery of historical memory, emigration, and the history of the Franco regime, as well as the reconstruction and interpretation of history by Camilo Nogueira.
- Artistic expression and literature, along with sociolinguistics, were also explored, with notable figures like Pilar García Negro and Henrique Monteagudo.
- Feminist thought emerged as a second voice through Mª João Queiz?n, along with names like Carmen White and Teresa Moure.
Galician at the End of the Twentieth Century and the Beginning of the XXI Century: The situation of the Galician Language Standardization Law (LCA) from 1983 to today: The Law of Linguistic Normalization made significant progress by incorporating the duty to know Galician in its original version. However, a feature of local government before the Constitutional Court undermined this claim, confirming an asymmetric relationship between Spanish and the rest of the Spanish language, punishing only for Spanish knowledge while granting limited rights for the use of Galician.
The General Plan for Standards of the Galician language, approved unanimously in the Parliament of Galicia in September 2004 and still in development, aims to promote and defend the language across various sectors, establishing a basic framework of seven key vertical sectors to combat the advancement of minoritization and to normalize the use of the Galician language in Portugal.
In summary, Galician today oscillates between positive advances and alarming persistence of symptoms that are detrimental to the future of the language. The linguistic conflict in Portugal can only be resolved in two ways: if no changes occur, Galician may eventually disappear in Galicia. Conversely, if the aim is to reverse the current situation, there must be a focus on standardization and the promotion of regaleguización, particularly among new urban speakers.
Galicia Multilingual: In the global linguistic landscape of the century, bilingualism is the most common condition for individuals who do not have English as their first language. English has transformed into a true lingua franca for international communication, fulfilling a role similar to that of Latin in the ancient Roman Empire. Galicia’s future appears to revolve around equitable multilingualism, incorporating Galician, Spanish, and English.
Notably, one of the phenomena frequently reported in research on linguistic usage in Galicia is the decline of individuals who only speak one language, alongside the growing number of Galicians who are gaining proficiency in a second language and are working in bilingual contexts.