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

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

• First World War
• theatre
• nationalism
• mythology
• civic religion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning, 66.

2. In addition to the pieces mentioned in the article, see: José da Câmara Manuel, Pátria. Lisboa, 1915; Arnaldo Serrão, Viva a França. Benavente, 1916; Firmino Vilhena, Mulheres da Cruz Vermelha. Aveiro, 1916; Octávio Rangel, A Ceia dos Generais, S. Paulo, 1917; José da Matta, Octávia ou o Amor Pátrio, Ferin, 1918; Alfredo de Freitas Branco, Madrinha de Guerra. Lisboa: Casa Ventura Abrantes, 1919; Jaime Cortesão, Adão e Eva. Lisboa: Seara Nova, 1921; Manuel Sousa, Sacrifício de Enfermeira, Faro, 1922; Fontana da Silveira, A Medalha do Herói. Lisboa, 1923; Carlos Ferreira, Irmã Cruz de Guerra. Lisboa: 1924; Lorjó Tavares, Ingleses. Porto: Civilização, 1925; Joaquim Leitão. Os Cegos. Porto: Companhia Portuguesa Editora, 1926; Lapas de Gusmão, O Mutilado. Lisboa: Livraria Universal, 1928; Eduardo Faria. Auto das Três Almas. Lisboa: Liga dos Combatentes da Grande Guerra, 1929; António Rocha, Salvé Portugal. Lisboa: Liga dos Combatentes da Grande Guerra, 1931; Eduardo Faria. E quando a Guerra Acabou. Lisboa: Liga dos Combatentes da Grande Guerra, 1932; Pereira Gil, A Ceia dos Aliados. Lisboa: Tipografia da Liga dos Combatentes da Grande Guerra, 1932; Mântua, Bento. Quem me Dera Ver. Lisboa: Liga dos Combatentes da Grande Guerra, 1932; Ornelas, Carlos de, O Último dia do Condenado. Lisboa, 1932; Eduardo Faria. Éramos Três Irmãos. Lisboa: Liga dos Combatentes da Grande Guerra, 1936; Luís Zamara, La Lys. Lisboa: Ferreira & Franco, 1940; António Botto, 9 de Abril. Lisboa: Livraria Popular de Francisco Franco, 1943; Ramada Curto, Os Redentores da Ilyria. Porto: Livraria Simões Lopes, 1955.

3. Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning, 69–76.

4. Meneses, “The Portuguese Empire,” 179–181.

5. Meneses, “Governments, Parliaments and Parties (Portugal).”

6. Neto, “A questão religiosa,” 128.

7. Meneses, “Costa, Afonso.”

8. Duarte, “State, Church and Society,” 236–237.

9. Ramos, “A Igreja e a I República,” 273.

10. Gomes, “O Padre António de Oliveira (1867–1923),” 113–117.

11. Cortesão, Cartilha do Povo.

12. Oliveira, Paz Bendita, 2.

13. Ibid., 6.

14. Moura, “Nas Trincheiras da Flandres,” 7–28.

15. Ibid., 29.

16. Oliveira, Paz Bendita, 6.

17. Novais, “Propaganda at Home (Portugal).”

18. Osório, “1914 (Episódio da Guerra).”

19. Castro, Alma Luzitana.

20. Figueiredo, ‘The stage of Mars,’ 81.

21. Carreira, Raça Portuguesa, 8.

22. ABC, Gente Portuguesa, 5.

23. Anderson, Imagined Communities, 32–33.

24. Figueiredo, “The stage of Mars,” 82.

25. “Ao Povo de Portalegre,” 1.

26. Samara, Alice, “Women’s Mobilization for War.”

27. ABC, Gente Portuguesa, 7.

28. Malato, O Maior Amor, 11.

29. Caroço, Amar a Pátria, 17.

30. Ibid., 25.

31. Ibid., 27.

32. See note 17 above.

33. Rollo and Pires, “Food and Nutrition (Portugal).”

34. Torgal, O Sol Bailou ao Meio-Dia, 21–22.

35. Neto, “Pais, Sidónio.”

36. Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning.

37. Hynes, A War Imagined, XI, 39–41.

38. Malheiro, Da Flandres ao Hanover e Mecklenburg, 365.

39. Araújo, “Reminiscências nacionais da Grande Guerra,” 94–95.

40. Malheiro, Da Flandres ao Hanover e Mecklenburg, 364.

41. Malheiro, O Amor na Base do CEP, 130.

42. Malheiro, Da Flandres ao Hanover e Mecklenburg, 364.

43. Brun, A Malta das Trincheiras, 67–70, 122–123.

44. Paço, Gírias Militares Portuguesas, 9–30.

45. Almeida, Coisas e Pêras, 38.

46. Ibid., 33–34.

47. Marques, Das Trincheiras com Saudade, 223.

48. Araújo, “Literature (Portugal)”; and Rosa, “Renascença Portuguesa.”

49. Marques, Guia de História da 1.ª República Portuguesa, 169.

50. Casimiro, Nas Trincheiras da Flandres, 208.

51. Fraga, “Augusto Casimiro: militar e escritor republicano,” 326–327.

52. Casimiro, Trincheiras de Portugal, 32–33.

53. Samara, “Post-War Political Consequences (Portugal).”

54. António de Cértima wrote in his memories entitled Epopeia Maldita ‘Cursed Epic’: ‘Nameless legionary, holy and forgotten hero, I see your anonymous bones, the remains of your pain, scattered across shallow cemeteries. […]. Soldier of Africa! How many medals have they placed on your chest’?, 276.

55. Pinheiro, A Mentira do Heroe, 8, 13–14.

56. Faria, E quando a Guerra Acabou; and Macdonald, “Rethinking the depiction of shell-shock in British Literature of the First World War, 1914–1918.”

57. Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning, 84–85.

58. Goebel, The Great War and Medieval Memory.

59. In 1958 (9 April), already during the Estado Novo, the ensemble was completed with the Christ of the Trenches. This statue, which had stood in a church in the Portuguese sector in Flanders and which had been mutilated by the bombing, was greatly symbolic for the Portuguese army, and was acquired in France by the Portuguese government.

60. Diário das Sessões da Câmara dos Deputados, 11–13.

61. Ibid., 13.

62. Castro, A Cruz de Guerra, 18.

63. Ibid., 31.

64. Cardoso, Auto dos Heróis, 26.

65. Monteiro, Nuno Álvares Pereira.

66. Leal, Nação e Nacionalismo.

67. Cardoso, Auto dos Heróis, 43.

68. Correia, Entre a Morte e o Mito, 355.

69. 9 de Abril (1931); Heróis de Portugal (1932); Cruzados de Portugal (1936); and Sonho de Glória (1936).

70. Figueiredo, “The stage of Mars,” 86–87.

71. Vicente, Cruzados de Portugal, 7.

72. Vicente, 9 de Abril, 10.

73. Regimento de Infantaria 14 (Infantry Regiment No. 14).

74. Vicente, Heróis de Portugal, 34.

75. Loureiro, Velha Guarda, 14.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the CEIS20 - Foundation for Science and Technology [UIDB/00460/ 2020].