Wonder, refuge, promiseExplorations and discoveries of America in Maria Irene Fornes' final plays

  1. Araceli González Crespán 1
  1. 1 Universidade de Vigo
    info

    Universidade de Vigo

    Vigo, España

    ROR https://ror.org/05rdf8595

Zeitschrift:
Latin American theatre review

ISSN: 0023-8813

Datum der Publikation: 2022

Ausgabe: 56

Nummer: 1

Seiten: 43-62

Art: Artikel

DOI: 10.1353/LTR.2022.0014 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openInvestigo editor

Andere Publikationen in: Latin American theatre review

Zusammenfassung

Five hundred years after Christopher Columbus' voyage to the Indies, scholar John Brushwood delineated the three main offerings of America as presented in Spanish-American literature: wonder, promise and refuge. Maria Irene Fornes' dramatic collection, Letters from Cuba and Other Plays (2007), includes three pieces that correspond to the last stage of her long career as a playwright. The trilogy presents different versions of America at the turn of the millennium, all of which share the motif of the voyage across the Atlantic, although the three journeys vary in direction, length, and implications. The article argues that, despite the obvious differences in style, tone, and theme, these plays respond to preoccupations about the meaning of "discovery" and "exploration" facilitated or triggered by the Atlantic. The effective use of palimpsest, hybridity, and simultaneity as instruments for exploration in each of the three texts, combined with the concepts that Brushwood proposes, render a new cartography for the notion of America at the end of the twentieth century.