The Valencian Sainet

Since the mid-nineteenth century up to the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939, the extraordinary popularity of the Valencian sainet short plays of one to two acts was due to the effervescent and prolific production of these new dramatic works capable of depicting the world of the Valencians as no genre did before. In these plays analysed in this book in their original versions the plots encapsulated systems of symbolic expression shaped by ethnicity, ideology, languages, kinship, beliefs, social construct and cultural capital, as the fictional frame offered to an audience was perceived as an imaginable reality. The stories they told, transferred from the street onto paper and the stage by Valencian playwrights, gave voice to characters dealing with complex contemporary socio-political issues happening in Valencian time and space settings. Demeaned since the beginning of Franco's dictatorship due to narratives of cultural exclusion, the genre is here the subject of a vivid first-time analysis of its role in shaping the Valencian socio-cultural identity during a precise timeframe.

Autorentext

Olga Celda Real is a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at King s College London. She is the Academician of the Real Acadèmia de Cultura Valenciana in London and a member of the academic board for the research journal ITAMAR. Olga holds a BA (Hons.) in Performing Arts by the ESAD (University of Valencia), a BA (Hons.) in Drama by the University of Manchester, an MA in Performance and Culture: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Goldsmiths, University of London) and a PhD in Spanish Cultural Studies (King s College London). Her professional career encompasses theatre research, American drama programs, teaching, drama translations and collaborations as a dramaturg and as theatre practitioner across disciplines.

Inhalt

Contents: El nostre teatre: Identifying the Valencian Sainet (1845- 1900) - Volem riure: Puns, Ideology and Performativity in the Golden Era of the Sainet (1900- 1930) - 'No me dona la republicana gana': The Valencian Sainet and the Second Republic (1931- 1939).