Home is where the (he)art is the family romance in late twentieth-century Mexican and Argentine theater

293 Pages·2008·1.569 MB·English

by  Magnarelli, Sharon

Home Is Where
the (He)art Is
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TheBucknellStudiesinLatinAmericanLiteratureand Theory
Series Editor:An´ıbalGonza´lez,Yale University
Dealing with far-reachingquestions of history and modernity,language and self-
hood, and power and ethics, Latin American literature sheds light on the many-
faceted nature of Latin American life, as well as on the human condition as a
whole. This series of books provides a forum for some of the best criticism on
LatinAmericanliteratureinawiderangeofcriticalapproaches,withanemphasis
on works that productively combine scholarship with theory. Acknowledging the
historical links and cultural affinities between Latin American and Iberian litera-
tures,theserieswelcomesconsiderationofSpanishandPortuguesetextsandtop-
ics,whilealsoprovidingaspaceofconvergenceforscholarsworkinginRomance
studies,comparativeliterature,culturalstudies,andliterarytheory.
TitlesinSeries
SergioWaisman,BorgesandTranslation:TheIrreverenceofthePeriphery
StuartDay,StagingPoliticsinMexico:TheRoadtoNeoliberalism
AmyNaussMillay,Voicesfromthefuenteviva:TheEffectofOralityinTwentieth-
CenturySpanishAmericanNarrative
J.AndrewBrown,TestTubeEnvy:ScienceandPowerinArgentineNarrative
JuanCarlosUbilluz,SacredEroticism:GeorgesBatailleandPierreKlossowskiin
theLatinAmericanEroticNovel
MarkA.Herna´ndez,FiguralConquistadors:RewritingtheNewWorld’s
DiscoveryandConquestinMexicanandRiverPlateNovelsofthe1980sand
1990s
GabrielRiera,LittoraloftheLetter:Saer’sArtofNarration
DianneMarieZandstra,EmbodyingResistance:GriseldaGambaroandthe
Grotesque
AmandaHolmes,CityFictions:Language,Body,andSpanishAmericanUrban
Space
GailBulman,StagingWords,PerformingWorlds:IntertextualityandNationin
ContemporaryLatinAmericanTheater
AnneLambright,CreatingtheHybridIntellectual:Subject,Space,andthe
FeministintheNarrativeofJose´ Mar´ıaArguedas
DaraE.Goldman,OutofBounds:IslandsandtheDemarcationofIdentityinthe
HispanicCaribbean
Eva-LynnAliciaJagoe,TheEndoftheWorldasTheyKnewIt:Writing
ExperiencesoftheArgentineSouth
SharonMagnarelli,HomeIsWherethe(He)artIs:TheFamilyRomanceinLate
Twentieth-CenturyMexicanandArgentineTheater
Rau´lMarrero-Fente,Epic,Empire,andCommunityintheAtlanticWorld:Silvestre
deBalboa’sEspejodepaciencia
http.//www.departments.bucknell.edu/univpress
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Home Is Where
the (He)art Is
The Family Romance
in Late Twentieth-Century
Mexican and Argentine Theater
Sharon Magnarelli
Lewisburg
Bucknell University Press
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(cid:2)2008byRosemontPublishing&PrintingCorp.
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AssociatedUniversityPresses
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ThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstherequirementsoftheAmerican
NationalStandardforPermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibraryMaterials
Z39.48-1984.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Magnarelli,Sharon,1946–
Homeiswherethe(he)artis:thefamilyromanceinlatetwentieth-century
MexicanandArgentinetheater/SharonMagnarelli.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-8387-5707-9(alk.paper)
1.Mexicandrama—20thcentury—Historyandcriticism. 2.Argentine
drama—20thcentury—Historyandcriticism. 3.Familyinliterature.
4.Womeninliterature. I.Title. II.Homeiswheretheartis.
PQ7189.M294 2008
862(cid:2).6409355—dc22 2007042820
printedintheunitedstatesofamerica
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For Lou
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Contents
Acknowledgments 9
Introduction 11
Part I: The Family Unit(ed), or the Holy Trinity
1. Sub/In/Di-verting the Oedipus Syndrome in Luisa
Josefina Herna´ndez’s Los hue´spedes reales 35
2. Authoring the Scene, Playing the Role: Mothers and
Daughters in Griselda Gambaro’s La malasangre 53
3. The Family Romance in Escarabajos by Hugo
Argu¨elles: Repositioning the Mirror 75
4. The Family Drama: Ambiguous Places of Seduction and
Memory in Roberto Cossa’s El saludador 95
5. ¿Homo sapiens? by Marcela del R´ıo: Who Framed the
Family? 119
Part II: After the Great Divide
6. Fathering the Nation in Sabina Berman’s Entre Villa y
una mujer desnuda 145
7. Performing Motherhood: Griselda Gambaro’s De
profesio´n maternal and Hugo Argu¨elles’s La esfinge de
las maravillas 171
8. Of Mothers, Gauchos, Knishes, and Desire:
Transculturation in Eduardo Rovner’s Volvio´ una noche 191
9. More Mothersand Daughters inPerformance: Simulacra
andCommodificationinDianaRaznovich’sCasaMatriz 214
Notes 235
Works Cited 277
Index 286
7
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Acknowledgments
I
N MANY WAYS THIS PROJECT BEGAN BACK IN 1984 WHEN I WAS
awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to do research on theater in Argen-
tina. From that point on, my interest in Spanish American theater
has continued to grow, and I am deeply indebted for that ‘‘founda-
tional’’ opportunity. More recently, a sabbatical leave from Quin-
nipiac University along with numerous research grants from both
the Research Committee and the College of Liberal Arts at Quin-
nipiac have provided me with both release time and several types
of funding, and it is thanks to their generosity that I have been able
to complete this project. I am also grateful to my many colleagues
in the field of Spanish American theater who offered helpful com-
ments after listening to portions of this project that I presented at
various conferences. I would also like to acknowledge and express
mygratitudetotheplaywrightswhoseworksIhaveincludedinthis
study; they have been generous with their time—meeting with me
and/oransweringmyquestions—andinmanycasestheymadetheir
works available to me, often before they were published.
Some of the chapters included here were first published as arti-
cles.Iwouldliketothankthefollowingpublishersforgrantingper-
mission to republish those materials:
‘‘Authoring the Scene, Playing the Role: Mothers and Daughters
in Griselda Gambaro’s La malasangre,’’ Latin American Theatre
Review 27, no. 2 (1994): 1–27. Permission granted by Stuart Day,
editor.
‘‘¿Homo sapiens? by Marcela del R´ıo: Who Framed the Fam-
ily?’’ in Studies in Honor of Donald Shaw, ed. Susan Carvalho
(Newark, DL: Juan de la Cuesta, 2006), 293–320. Permission
granted by Thomas Lathrop, editor.
‘‘Papeles maternales: Griselda Gambaro y Hugo Argu¨elles,’’ in
Imagen del teatro, ed. Osvaldo Pellettieri (Buenos Aires: Galerna,
2002), 75–81. Permission granted by Osvaldo Pellettieri, editor.
‘‘Simulacra and Commodification in Diana Raznovich’s Casa
Matriz (or Whose Life Is This Anyway?),’’ Letras Femeninas 32,
no. 1: 169–87. Permission granted by Carmen de Urioste, editor.
9
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10 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
‘‘Sub/In/Di-vertingtheOedipusSyndrome inLuisaJosefinaHer-
na´ndez’s Los hue´spedes reales,’’ INTI 40 (Fall 1994): 93–112. Per-
mission granted by Roger Carmosino, editor.
‘‘Teatralidad y familia en Escarabajos de Hugo Argu¨elles,’’ in
Tendencias cr´ıticas en el teatro, ed. Osvaldo Pellettieri (Buenos
Aires: Galerna, 2001): 53–64. Permission granted by Osvaldo Pel-
lettieri, editor.
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