Yan Michalski e a crítica teatral de transição no Jornal do Brasil (1964-1982)

Abstract

The research investigates how Yan Michalski's critical output, published in Jornal do Brasil from 1964 to 1982, reveals the emergence of contemporary theater criticism. In this study, we seek to reflect on a period when theater criticism was sheltered by newspapers. The 1940s were a founding decade for modern theatre criticism, in terms of its professionalization, just as the 1950s were important for journalists. The critics of this generation also tried to create parameters to guide an activity that was based on subjectivity. The 1950s saw the modernization of the Brazilian press, ranging from the renovation of newsrooms to the adoption of specific narrative techniques, such as the lead, the inverted pyramid and the creation of the figure of the copy editor. Objectivity, impartiality and neutrality became attributes of a good journalistic text. In this context, Yan Michalski began writing for JB, specifically in 1963, when he replaced critic Bárbara Heliodora in some situations, and in 1964 he was hired by the newspaper, taking over the theater column. During this period, the newspaper was one of the driving forces behind cultural journalism and dedicated a special section to issues involving this topic. In Caderno B, Michalski published his texts almost daily and had the opportunity to write more than one review of the same show. To analyze the object, we used the perspective of the "indicative paradigm" (GINZBURG, 1989) and the "affective turn" (MORICEAU, 2019). Through the theatrical reviews, we recovered discursive traces, whose narrative forms were able to reveal feelings that bring the idea of transition and were thus transformed into categories and subcategories. From reading his critical work, we can see continuity, which manifests itself in his attachment to the model of modern theatrical criticism, but at the same time we have the presence of rupture, which appears when Michalski anticipates some of the characteristics of contemporary criticism. Thus, we call the theater criticism written by Yan Michalski a "transition criticism", that which lies between historical regimes, a border text that bears the marks of instability and latency. A theatrical critique of the "in-between place" (SANTIAGO, 2000), in other words, one that reconfigures the boundaries and amalgamates two values, the modern and the contemporary.