Distraer y gobernar: Teatro y diversiones públicas en santiago de Chile durante la era de las revoluciones (1780-1836)

In this article, I analyze the role assigned to the theater in Chile during the Age of Revolution. I focus on the suppositions that led the literate elites to believe in the state's political efficacy. Through the study of discourse surrounding public entertainment from 1780 to 1836, I reveal the existence of a deep relationship between entertaining and governing. The literates believed that the theater was a political instrument, in part, because it allowed government leaders and authorities to satisfy what they saw as a natural demand for entertainment in addition to attending to the population's mood. This connection between entertainment and the exercise of power reveals both some of the period's political mutations and the way in which the erudite sectors included political activity. In this way, through the example of the theater, I intend to highlight the historiographical relevance that the examination of the suppositions that underlie the power of communication can have for the study of the colonial crisis and the Republican organization.