Comunidades teatrales: La melancolia y la nostalgia en la representacion y formacion de la identidad argentina a fines del siglo XX y principios del siglo XXI

This study examines how the Argentine theatre of the 1980s, 1990s and early XXI century represent the construction and deconstruction of the national identity through the lenses of melancholia and nostalgia. Both of these terms are not examined as a characteristic in the representation of an Argentine identity, but rather as the means that establish the relationship of the self with the remains of their past. Through the re-readings of Sigmund Freud by Walter Benjamin, David Eng and David Kazanjian, I focus on the performance of melancholia and its productivity in the edification and strengthening of the self. It is also through Stevlana Boym's theories of reflexive and restorative nostalgia that I investigate how theatre portrays the demise of the Argentine identity. The study is divided in three theatrical communities, each representing the historical and lineal progression of the country's change from the homogeneous unit of the early eighties to the neoliberal market and globalized culture of the late nineties and early XXI century. The first theatrical community is centered on the family unit. Here, I focus on the emergence of a new identity despite and due to a generational conflict. The plays under study are Te de tias (1985) by Cristina Escofet, Volvio una noche (1991) by Eduardo Rovner, El Partener (1988) by Mauricio Kartun and De atras para adelante (1991) by Diana Raznovich. The second is a community constituted by actors. Here, I study how Rojos Globos Rojos (1994) by Eduardo Pavlovsky and Un momento argentino (2001) by Rafael Spregelburd portray a chaotic and contradictory self when reality and fiction play an equal role in a globalized culture. The third is the marginalized community as represented in La Bohemia (1998) by Sergio Boris and Perras (2002) collective work by Nestor Caniglia, Enrique Federman, Claudio Martinez and Mauricio Kartun. Both plays use the theatrical platform to reflect on the degeneration of the Argentine self, pre and post the 2001 economic and political crisis, through the violent and destructive nature of marginalized characters. It is through these theatrical communities and their respective audiences, that theatre participate in the on-going dialogue that questions the future and identity of the nation in the XXI century.