When art meets crisis: the Portuguese story and beyond

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7458/SPP20188611860

Keywords:

Portugal, fiscal crisis, the arts, cinema, popular music, literature

Abstract

The article focuses on how the Portuguese arts have dealt with the Portuguese crisis, in the years 2011-2014, when the country was subjected to a financial bailout. The approach is based on a cross-section analysis, considering the domains of literature, fine arts, visual arts and cinema, music and performing arts. It emphasizes three distinct and complementary ways through which the relation between arts and society was developed in these years. The first way is the directly political positioning of artists, through artistic works and performances. The second way is the presence of the crisis as a background of several artistic creations of this time. And the third way is the one by which the crisis projects a new light into consistent topics of the Portuguese artistic imagination, stressing the centrality of collective identity and self-reflexivity. The Portuguese case suggests how promising can be for the sociological explanation of social processes the consideration of their cultural and artistic dimensions.

Author Biographies

Augusto Santos Silva, Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto [Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto]

Augusto Santos Silva is a Sociologist, Full Professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto (FEP). Researcher in the Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto (IS-UP). He is the author of several publications in the fields of Sociology of Culture and Arts, Sociological Theories and Methodologies, and Political Theory.

Paula Guerra, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto [Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto]

Paula Guerra is a Sociologist, Assistant Professor of Sociology at University of Porto (FLUP), Researcher in the Institute of Sociology (IS-UP) and Invited researcher at the Centre for Geography Studies and Territory Planning at the Faculty of Arts, University of Porto (CEGOT). She is also an Adjunct Professor of the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research (GCSCR) at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia.

Helena Santos, Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto [Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto]

Helena Santos is a Sociologist, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto (FEP) and researcher at the Communication Sciences and Technologies Research Center of the University of Porto (CETAC.MEDIA).

Downloads

Additional Files

Published

2017-12-18

Issue

No. 86 (2018)

Section

Artigos

License

Authors who publish in this Journal must agree the following terms and conditions:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal the right to first publication, while simultaneously agreeing to a Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows others to share their work on condition that they cite the original author(s) and recognise that the latter’s work was first published in this Journal.
  2. Authors are authorised to enter into additional contracts separately, for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work that is published in this Journal (e.g. publication in an institutional repository or as a book chapter), subject to recognition of initial publication in this Journal.