Dramatic Interventions Performance And Memory Politics In Contemporary Argentine Theatre 1983 2005

Theatre brings bodies and narratives together to transmit collective memory and challenge and reaffirm notions of community and nationhood. The study at hand spans the postdictatorial period, beginning in 1983, although I prefer to bracket my analysis between Teatro Abierto (1981-85) and Teatroxlaidentidad (2001-present)---two significant Argentine theatre events that have been instrumental in founding communities of spectatorship and bringing to account debates on artistic representation and memory politics in contemporary Argentina. This dissertation examines key dramatic texts and emblematic stagings that address intergenerational memory, mourning, witnessing, and national identity in postdictatorial Argentine theatre and society. I emphasize theatre's uniqueness as an artistic genre to respond to trauma and articulate different kinds of memory through a combination of embodied and verbal representation. I analyze the role of memory and modes of transmission in each step of the theatrical process, from rehearsals to audience reception. One of the main, underlying objectives is to identify and theorize the overlapping and sometimes indistinguishable frames of reference that encompass collective identities and shape communities of spectatorship.