Dolores Prida. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Coser y cantar (1981)[1]. Pantallas (1986)[1]. York Hispanic street language, and this cast exploits it so hilariously that at times even a viewer with no Spanish may want to set aside the simultaneous translation earphones and take it in.
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Cross-Border Subjectivity and the Dramatic Text FOUR The definition oftext has been substantially repositioned in the wake of performance art, as weIl as in performativity, where it now resides as an 'utter-active' system of production. In 'mainstream' Anglo American discourses, textual objectivity has been debated by a wide range of scholars, from Judith Butler to Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Sue-Ellen Case. For Latina and Latino intellectuals, ever since Gloria Anzaldua published her groundbreaking piece, Borderlands/La Frontera (1987), the discursive configurations of hybridity have operated as models for inscribing the 'border's' dynamics in a way that enables the fusion and convergence ofcontesting 'textualities.'
With the publication ofCriticism in the Borderland by Hector Calder6n and Jose David Saldfvar (1991), a field of'border' studies, accurately recognized for its theoretical function and its practicality, was incorporated into institutional canons. Although recently the concept of'borders' has been posited as a cliche, the geopolitics of the U.S.-Mexico (Latin America) border space must be reconsidered continuously. As long as there is a dividing 'wire' that separates peoples, worlds, and cultures, a border identity has to be constructed and deconstructed, in keeping with the act of 'crossing ' itself. As with any other cultural 'site,' a border space is in constant movement and commotion. This chapter enacts the interface implicit in border identity, whereby geopolitics and cultural survival become paramount in the plays writ- 100 Latina Performance ten by Latinas. I want to complicate the autonomy of performance by confronting the demands and traditions in the dramatic text which actualizes itself in the 'performing' body ofthe act of reading.
Beyond its concern with theatrical, dramatic, and performative activities, Latina Performance is about the spatial alliance of bodies, identity, commodities, and other fundamentals of culture that are at once the object of performance and the field in which it takes place. Anzaldua's discursive configuration does not directly delineate the grammars ofthe performative subject. Indirectly, however, the 'border' is cast as the meeting ground ofoppositional postures, the site where the third world joins the 'authority' of the first world. The adjudication of such binary-opposed sites is a continual struggle among cross-border subjects, whose movements are aimed at seeuring economic survival and, as a consequence, cultural survival as well. For Latina dramatists and performance artists, the border itself is often a paradigm for theatrical and performative interventions.
This is true for Milcha SanchezScott 's dramatic text, Latina, which is the main focus of this chapter. As many have already suggested, texts are substantiated by various systems of production and reception.
The prominence of this sense of 'textuality' saturates more than the formulation of 'print culture.' As Case has commented, textuality 'is posited as an after-effect of print.' L Specifically, Case discusses the effect of'orality' (the public reading of academic research papers), noting that it is the institutions embedded in orality which define the medium of print implanted in the production of knowledge; thus, these institutions lead and demarcate the performative. The social function and desirability of performance in this instance supports the intellectual and virtual body by endowing it with presence, volume, visibility, and, sometimes, improvisation. In this kind ofperformance, the corporeality oftext takes form through the resonance of multiple levels of representation and through authorial power.
In the performance of a dramatic text, however, the power of representation is rooted in the many conventions of language, scene, meta-discursive figuration, character, and semiosis. Thus, I take a multilayered approach to the dramatic text. Lexamine it not only as a literary practice, but also as a heterogeneous artifact that integrates aseries of representational subsystems. These subsystems correspond to the nontextual elements that produce the performative 'state' of representation: Its pluralistic identity becomes an affirmative response to a reality and a language defined by openness and indeterminacy. Although in this chapter I focus chiefly on Sanchez-Scott's Latina, I also make extended references to Coser y cantar by Dolores Prida and Cross-Border Subjectivity and the Dramatic Text 101 to Simply Marla or the American Dream by Josefina L6pez.
These discussions help demonstrate how aH three playwrights use drama to reproduce their own polycultural, divided positionality as they construct personal and political identities. Sanchez-Scott's, Prida's, and L6pez's dramatic contributions are also linked in that they each treat the discursive configurations of the cross-border subjectivity prevalent in contemporary Latina theater. That many Latina dramatists should be interested in the idea ofcross-border subject formation.
Coser y Cantar Coser y Cantar Presented July 18, 1998 Coser y Cantar is a play in which two sides of one woman (interpreted by the characters of Ella and She) constantly confront one another. Such conflicts are brought about by the great difference in personalities and mannerisms developed by Ella and She. Like Prida says, it's a play that '. Is really one long monologue'. Not only is there a conflict due to culture, but also due to the ethics that the woman, especially the Latin woman, must confront.
Farcical and with a refreshing dose of realism, Coser y Cantar is a play that offers a great deal of satisfaction to its audience. This page last updated January 12, 2000 Webmastered.