Files
Abstract
My dissertation discusses five theatrical plays written by the Cuban playwright Alberto Pedro Torriente (1955-2005) between 1989 and 1997, during the so-called Cuban Special Period. His theater became a site of resistance against the hegemonic Revolutionary ideology in Cuba. I approach his work with the theoretical framework of Foucaults article "Of other Spaces", in which he introduces the concept of heterotopia, as an enacted utopia that functions as a mirror of society that inverts, questions, and subverts the other spaces where they are inserted. Through the use of heterotopic spaces Alberto Pedro addresses questions of memory and representation in order to examine national identity, race, and gender issues. I contend that his theater operates within Revolutionary discourse, while contesting these same discourses. A reflection upon the use of spaces is also central in this work, within the framework of Cultural Studies. From the staging of his plays to the positioning of his theater within Cuban history and society, there is a redefinition of the concept of Insularity. Ghosts appearing on the ruins of Havana, his characters recover silenced memories from the past as lost traces of the Cuban palimpsest.