Publications

The historiography of Galician literature has yet to produce a satisfactory account of the history of the theatre in Galicia. Up to now, each new periodisation has amounted to little more than an attempt to cover the imbalances and inconsistencies of its predecessors and impose some sort of order among the disjointed patchwork of historical dates and particulars. Laura Tato Fontaíña’s new in-depth survey of the period 1915-1931 is much more than that.

Far from ignoring previous research, Tato Fontaíña returns to the primary sources, public and private collections, and contemporary periodicals in order to assess the accuracy of that earlier criticism and expose the flaws in many of our accepted ‘truths’. The misdating by three years of the breakup of the Escola Dramática Galega, one of the most important institutions in the revival and development of Galician drama, is just one example among many.

Out of the jigsaw puzzle of dates, records and contemporary theories and debates, Tato Fontaíña has succeeded in reassembling this fractured story, to provide readers and researchers with a new periodisation for the history of the theatre in Galicia.