a sociedade portuguesa da segunda metade do século xviii

ABSTRACT
The study presented deals with the analysis of some structures of the Ancien
Régime on Portugal, with main focus on the gift and the hierarchy, so that it’s
possible to understand how this society worked. The concept of representation,
as defined by Roger Chartier, guided the social interactions, and being like this,
the “being in public” was a theater stage, and the individuals, the actors. The
hierarchy was present in all the expressions of the Ancien Régime society, and
the gift was the instrument that made the social relationships possible. It was
the “economy of the gift”, an exchange established between two individuals: on
one side there was the services, conceded by an individual inferior on the
social hierarchy, and on the other side, there was the rewards, conceded by an
individual higher on social scale. In the theater screenplays used as sources
used to the analysis of these structures, there is a realization of how these
interactions developed in practice, in the domain of the relationships between
lord-servant, father-son and husband-wife. Theater screenplays, especially the
entremez, give valuable information about the mentality of the Ancien Régime
society, because they’re idealized and directed to a spontaneous and
influenceable public, besides representing the daily life of it.
Keywords: Portuguese Ancién Regime. Gift and Hierarchy. Theater
Screenplays.
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