Migration and Exile in Contemporary Spanish American Theater



This course will examine Spanish American plays from both the 20th-and 21st-centuries that explore the topic of migration in thematic and symbolic terms. We will study the various manifestations of migration—immigration, emigration, exile, and return—as each of them are connected to social, political, economic, psychological, linguistic, and physical realities. The movement of peoples and communities from one continent, country, or region to another has become a frequent occurrence, and playwrights have seen, interpreted, and staged the drama and instability behind this uprooting. The goal is to study Spanish American plays from countries and regions that have experience significant amounts of internal and external migration, as well as countries that have experienced massive emigration. The course will be divided in both regions and topics:

Argentina: Displacement and disappearance; Mexico/U.S. Borderlands; The Caribbean: “Sailing” Away; Pilgrimage and Memory: The Andean Region.

Some of the playwrights to be studied include Roberto Cossa (Argentina); Arístides Vargas (Argentina/Ecuador); René Marqués (Puerto Rico); Sabina Berman (México); Grupo Yuyachkani (Perú); Hugo Salcedo (México), and Jorge Díaz (Chile). (1 unit)



Required text: René Marqués, La Carreta ed. Marithelma Costa (Plaza Mayor, 2013) (978-1-56328-377-2).