Latin American Women Dramatists

Description

Examines the work of contemporary Latin American dramatists.

"The book highlights the many possibilities of the innovative work of these dramatists, and this will, it is to be hoped, help the editors to achieve one of their other key goals: productions of the plays in English." —Times Literary Supplement

"This thoughtfully crafted book with its insightful and informative studies elucidates an overlooked, essential component of the Latin American literary canon." —Choice

Contributors discuss 15 works of Latin-American playwrights, delineate the artistic lives of women dramatists of the last half of the twentieth century—from countries as diverse as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela—and highlight the problems inherent in writing under politically repressive governments.

Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• Latin American
• Theater
• América del Sur
• Theatre
• General officer
• South America
• Latin America
• Cinema
• General
• Caribbean
• Media

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 22 mai 1999
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253109057
• Langue: English

Extrait

LATIN AMERICAN WOMEN DRAMATISTS
Latin American Women Dramatists
Theater, Texts, and Theories

Edited by Catherine Larson and Margarita Vargas

INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA
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© 1998 by Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Latin American women dramatists : theater, texts, and theories / edited by Catherine Larson and Margarita Vargas. p.    cm. Includes bibliographical references (p.  ) and index. ISBN 0-253-33461-6 (alk. paper). — ISBN 0-253-21240-5 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Latin American drama—Women authors—History and criticism. 2. Latin American drama—20th century—History and criticism. 3. Feminism and theater—Latin America. I.   Larson, Catherine. date. II.   Vargas, Margarita, date. PQ7082.D7L38   1998 862—dc21 98-34127
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FOR ALEX
FOR DAVID, ISAAC,
CHRISTOPHER AND ELENA
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Catherine Larson and Margarita Vargas
PART I Theatrical Self-Consciousness
Reenacting Politics: The Theater of Griselda Gambaro
Becky Boling
Maruxa Vilalta: Una voz en el desierto
Sharon Magnarelli
Playing a Waiting Game: The Theater of Mariela Romero
Anita K. Stoll
PART II Politics
A. THE PERSONAL AS POLITICAL
Power Plays / Plays of Power: The Theater of Pilar Campesino
Carla Olson Buck
The Tortured Magic of Hebe Serebrisky
George Woodyard
Acting Radical: The Dramaturgy of Consuelo de Castro
Margo Milleret
B. NATIONAL POLITICS
The Theater of Diana Raznovich and Percepticide in El desconcierto
Diana Taylor
A Moveable Space: The Problem of Puerto Rico in Myrna Casas’s Theater
Vicky Unruh
PART III History
Sabina Berman’s Undone Threads
Ronald D. Burgess
Social Critique and Theatrical Power in the Plays of Isidora Aguirre
Adam Versényi
PART IV Feminist Positions
Carmen Boullosa’s Obligingly Heretic Art: New Challenges for Criticism
Roselyn Costantino
Leilah Assunção: Marginal Women and the Female Experience
Judith Bissett
For Women Only? The Theater of Susana Torres Molina
Jacqueline Eyring Bixler
Masculine Space in the Plays of Estela Leñero
Myra S. Gann
Elusive Dreams, Shattered Illusions: The Theater of Elena Garro
Stacy Southerland
Selected Bibliography
Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the support of our home campuses, SUNY-Buffalo and Indiana University, in the preparation of this collection. In particular, our thanks to the contributors to this volume, who number among the outstanding scholars in the field of Latin American theater. Their expertise in the history and traditions surrounding Latin American women writers is complemented by an ability to combine theory and practice elegantly. We extend to each of the contributors our heartfelt thanks for the quality of their contributions and for their infinite patience.
In particular, we would like to acknowledge the special contributions that George Woodyard has made to the field of Latin American theater studies and, on a personal level, to the professional development of virtually every contributor to this volume. As editor of the Latin American Theatre Review , George has been one of the instrumental figures in the dissemination of Latin American theater in the United States. Through his journal, publications, classes, and indefatigable participation in theater festivals and conferences throughout Latin America, he has promoted the production of high-quality theater criticism. Our debt to him is enormous, and our gratitude is sincere.
Introduction
Catherine Larson and Margarita Vargas
Una de las primeras tareas de la crítica del teatro de la mujer en América Latina es descubrir la existencia de mujeres escribiendo teatro. 1
—Juan Villegas
The essays selected for this volume reflect our interest in providing a forum for critical discussion of women who have worked in and written for the theater during the latter half of the twentieth century. These women began to write in ever-increasing numbers after the 1960s, due, in part, to the political movements and upheaval of this watershed decade. The fervent dissension, reaction to repression, and resistance, exhibited in the political turmoil and student activism of the times, precipitated the entrance of women and other marginalized groups into a reconfigured public space.
Feminism, in its mid-twentieth-century manifestation in Latin America, was also instrumental in motivating more women to write for the theater. A number of women dramatists began to make a more substantive impact on the field, as María Mercedes Jaramillo and Nora Eidelberg have noted:
La concientización femenina, que se ha incrementado en los últimos años, ha estimulado en gran medida la creación literaria de las dramaturgas. ... Es indispensable reconocer la labor de las mujeres en el teatro latinoamericano, ya que el mundo del espectáculo ha sido uno de los espacios vedados a la mujer y el que más trabajo le ha costado penetrar en el campo de las artes.... ( Voces en escena 10) 2
[Feminine consciousness raising, which has grown in the last few years, has in great measure stimulated the literary creation of women dramatists.... It is essential to recognize the work of women in Latin American theater, since the world of the spectacle has been one of the spaces kept from women and one of the most difficult to penetrate in the field of the arts....]
We have chosen a variety of playwrights—those whose names will be familiar to the general public, those who may be known only to scholars in the field of twentieth-century Latin American theater, and those less-well-known writers whose work merits attention. 3 Our hope is to introduce (or, in a few cases, to further describe) these dramatists to a public that may not be aware of the extent and quality of their dramatic and/or theatrical production. In several cases, the writers have not only written for the stage but have also involved themselves directly in performance; their contributions in that arena are highlighted as well. Thus, this volume is not only about recuperating lost voices but about celebrating contemporary writers whose drama has reverberated in their own countries and throughout Latin America and, in some cases, in Europe and the United States.
The essays follow the same basic format: a general introduction to the playwright to help to situate her within the context of her country or in Latin America as a whole, a description of her work in the theater, and a more substantive analysis (often theoretically informed) of at least one specific text. 4 The goal was to strike a balance between the vida-y-obra [life-and-works] introduction to each writer, which serves an important contextual function, and a detailed study of one or more characteristic plays.
We have divided the essays into four categories based on theoretical and thematic similarities, taking into account the considerable overlap among those categories. The first category, with essays by Becky Boling, Sharon Magnarelli, and Anita K. Stoll, is “Theatrical Self-Consciousness.” The second category, “Politics,” is treated in two parts: “The Personal as Political,” with contributions by Carla Buck, George Woodyard, and Margo Milleret, and “National Politics,” with essays by Diana Taylor and Vicky Unruh. The third category, “History,” comprises studies by Ronald Burgess and Adam Versényi. In “Feminist Positions,” Roselyn Costantino, Judith Bissett, Jacqueline Bixler, Myra Gann, and Stacy Southerland examine questions of patriarchy, oppression, and subjectivity. The fifteen essays paint a portrait of the woman dramatist of the last half of the century from countries as diverse as Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Chile. The studies underline the problems inherent in writing for the stage in countries suffering under politically repressive governments, and they indicate the special problems and opportunities that writers faced because of their gender.

Theatrical Self-Consciousness
Much of the theater written in Latin America in the last half of the century has reflected the popular trend of self-consciousness or self-reflexivity, as dramatists observe and comment upon the connections between life and art. According to Richard Hornby, writers tend to prod