THE STAGING OF HETEROPATRIARCHAL VIOLENCE AND ITS TRAUMATIC AFTERMATH IN ADELINA ANTHONY'S "BRUISING FOR BESOS" AND DULCE MARIA SOLIS'S "CHELA"

Working from the juncture points of Latino feminist studies, trauma discourse, and theater studies, this essay discusses the work of two Latina playwrights and performers, Adelina Anthony and Dulce Maria Solis, and their staging of the trauma of institutionalized heteropatriarchal violence in their...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chicana/Latina studies 2014-04, Vol.13 (2), p.38-59
Main Author: López, Tiffany Ana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Daughters
Domestic violence
Mothers
Playwriting
Resilience, Persistence, and Change: Shifting and Contesting Traditions
Sexual violence
Spousal abuse
Storytelling
Theater
Theater criticism
Women
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Summary:Working from the juncture points of Latino feminist studies, trauma discourse, and theater studies, this essay discusses the work of two Latina playwrights and performers, Adelina Anthony and Dulce Maria Solis, and their staging of the trauma of institutionalized heteropatriarchal violence in their individual plays Bruising for Besos and CHELA (both published in Chicana/Latina Studies, vol. 9, no. 2 and vol. 12, no. 1, respectively). Through dramaturgical analysis of the published scripts and live performances, the author explores how Anthony and Solis use testimonio to document and define institutionalized violence. The essay opens with a discussion of Cherríe Moraga's essays and plays as foundational to its reading of how Anthony and Solis's plays illustrate the role of testimony in the process of navigating through the traumatic afermath of heteropatriarchal violence. Drawing on her interviews with the playwrights and her dramaturgical work preparing the scripts for publication, the author also looks at how these dramatists and performers understand the potential of their plays to foster realizations about one's relationship to heteropatriarchal violence and thereby open up avenues for personal and social change.
ISSN:1550-2546