Dissertation Defenses

Doctoral Dissertation Announcement

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Candidate: Nuria Ibáñez-Quintana

Degree of: Doctor of Philosophy

Department: Spanish

Title: Visiones Convergentes: Mito, Historia y Arquetipo en la Dramaturgia de Lourdes Ortiz, Sabina Berman y Diana Raznovich

Committee:
Dr. Irma Lopez, Chair
Dr. Caroline Harris
Dr. Gary Bigelow
Dr. Jorge Febles

Date: Friday, December 7, 2007 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
10th Floor Sprau Tower

Abstract:
This dissertation explores eight plays written by Lourdes Ortiz, Sabina Berman and Diana Raznovich to examine the different approaches (myth, history and archetype) these authors take to denunciate and deconstruct gender roles showing them as performative acts socially legitimated by constant repetition. My main theoretical approach is the study of gender and identity as established in Judith Butler's landmark essay of the performative acts. I also apply the works of feminist critics such as Julia Kristeva, Marjorie Garber, Annis Pratt, and those who study representation like Elin Diamond and Elaine Aston. Finally, I incorporate theater scholars like Bertolt Brecht, Lionel Abel, Richard Hornby, Patrice Pavis, among others.
Chapter One analyses two dramas, Fedra and Electra-Babel, by the Spanish writer Lourdes Ortiz to investigate how she rewrites mythical discourse and opens up new visions of gender roles in western society. She carries out her tasks by means of recurrent intertextuality and juxtaposing the time of the classical myth and the present, showing how the structures inherited from myth no longer apply in our times. Chapter Two considers three plays, Águila o sol, Entre Villa y una mujer desnuda y Feliz nuevo siglo Doctor Freud, by the Mexican writer Sabina Berman, in order to disclose the official historical discourse that connects power to gender and sex roles. The playwright uses a historiographical approach that aims for a revision of the official historical discourse. Finally, Chapter Three examines El Desconcierto, Casa matriz y De atrás para adelante, by the Argentinean Diana Raznovich, which denunciates sexually biased discourse that focuses the feminine body and portrays gender and sex as a set of behaviors learned and repeated through centuries.
All of these writers aim to destabilize gendered roles and to promote identities and behaviors more in line with the reality of our days. Thus, in spite of the different surroundings in which these women live, they all reach similar conclusions about the need to widen our vision and the possibilities of gender and sex behaviors in our new global society.