Home Is Where the (He)art Is: The Family Romance in Late Twentieth-Century Mexican and Argentine Theatre »

In Home Is Where The (He)art Is Sharon Magnarelli employs a variety of contemporary critical approaches to examine the dramatic works written or performed between 1956 and 1999. Focusing on plays by Griselda Gambaro, Eduardo Rovner, Sabina Berman, Diana Raznovich, Roberto Cossa, Hugo Arguelles, Marcela del Rio, and Luisa Josefina Hernandez, Magnarelli demonstrates how the playwrights engage with family relationships to comment on sociopolitical issues of national and international significance while simultaneously challenging dramatic conventions and theatrical representation. This study provides readings of plays that have already attracted significant critical attention. It also serves as a useful introduction to the modern theater of Mexico and Argentina for the interested non-specialist.

Acknowledgments 9

Introduction 11

Pt. I The Family Unit(ed), or the Holy Trinity

1 Sub/In/Di-verting the Oedipus Syndrome in Luisa Josefina Hernandez's Los huespedes 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 Arguelles: 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 Rio: Who Framed the Family? 119

Pt. 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 profession maternal and Hugo Arguelles'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 Mothers and Daughters in Performance: Simulacra and Commodification in Diana Raznovich's Casa Matriz 214

Notes 235

Works Cited 277

Index 286