Comedy from Pre-Modernism to Postmodernism: from Nicolás Granada to Javier Daulte

Abstract

Since its origins, Argentine comedy has been related to history, and revealed itself as a strongly didactic genre. This can already be observed in El hipócrita politico (anonymous 1820), the first River Plate comedy of manners. From that moment on, the genre was frequently used to debate the political situation. As time went by, the genre changed without loosing its didactic nature, incorporating the innovations introduced by Gregorio de Laferrère and the "sainete comedy". During the ‘50s and ‘60s it reached a climax through the revival of vaudeville techniques. The fact that realism has always been predominant in our theater, determined that comedy was considered merely popular and light, and that its productivity was exhausted in the ‘60s.
Nevertheless, its productivity as intertext has not disappeared, as we can see in Javier Daulte’s plays, although the author states that theater should not serve any purpose, which implies the denial of the modern idea of engaged literature. Theater critics and historians have underlined Daulte’s intertextual work with genres such as detective fiction, science fiction, melodrama. But comedy is never mentioned, although it appears at least in two plays: Nunca estuviste tan adorable and La felicidad. Especially in the last one, a series of techniques help to place family once more as the dramatic center of the play and, in spite of the author’s statements, it has a notorious didactic penchant.