{"id":293,"date":"2021-05-05T20:45:06","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T20:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/?p=293"},"modified":"2021-11-21T21:05:13","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T21:05:13","slug":"latinx-reception-of-greek-tragic-myth-healing-and-radical-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/latinx-reception-of-greek-tragic-myth-healing-and-radical-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Latinx Reception of Greek Tragic Myth: Healing (and) Radical Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Aikaterini Delikonstantinidou<\/strong>
290 pp. Peter Lang<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reviewed by Guillermo Avil\u00e9s-Rodr\u00edguez<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Socrates was correct in his assertion that wisdom can only come to us when we finally apprehend just how little we understand about ourselves and the world around us, then Latinx Reception of Greek Tragic Myth: Healing (and) Radical Politics<\/em> offers the field of ethnic studies generally and Latinx Studies in particular an important inoculation against this condition of knowing ourselves too little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latinx Reception<\/em> offers an examination of the contemporary cultural production of four contemporary Chicana\/o and Latinx playwrights in conversation with both contemporary issues confronting their communities and the histories and mythologies of the ancient Greeks. Through the examination of six plays inspired by Greek tragic myths revolving around four classical dramatic characters (Electra, Iphigenia, Medea, and Oedipus), these authors voice a present-day struggle with historical resonances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latinx Reception <\/em>examines the dramatic revisions of these myths to reveal the complexities of mestizaje,<\/em> or the mixed-race status of people of European and indigenous American descent. Along with the concept of the tragic, mestizaje<\/em> makes up one of the text\u2019s central unifying ideas behind its subjects\u2019 civil and curative functions. Thisenthusiastic exploration of Latinx theatre and its adaptations of classical Greek tragedies stands as the first contemporary monograph to tie Latinx studies and adaptations of ancient Greek plays and myths together through a dramaturgical treatment of work by four contemporary playwrights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work of these four\u2014Carlos Morton, Cherr\u00ede Moraga, Luis Alfaro and Caridad Svich\u2014as well as the subaltern communities they explore in their work (gang members, victims of domestic violence, LGBTQ+ and undocumented communities) is covered in seven chapters framed by a prologue and epilogue. The text is further organized into a layering of four thematic sections: Mestizx Medeas<\/em>, Mestizo Oedipus, Tragic Daughters I: Mestiza Electra, <\/em>and Tragic Daughters II: Mestiza Iphigenia<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beginning with a Prolegomena<\/em> and a section on Mestizx Mythopoesis<\/em>, the text attempts to lay out a trajectory from \u201cPre-colonial Myths to Post-colonial Mitos<\/em> and Beyond\u201d (18) an important intervention given that when the Spaniards finally conquered Tenochtitl\u00e1n<\/em> in 1521, one of the first tasks they set for themselves was the severing of the tendons that tied the autochthonous peoples of the Americas to their pantheistic mythology. It was only by this erasure, however tenuous, of indigenous epistemologies that the defeated became fully subjugated. With this connection these texts can be framed as contemporary cries for myth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is after this section that we learn of the logic behind the selection of writers and their works summarized as works representing \u201ca crucial development in the theatre of the Latin American diaspora in the U.S.,\u201d \u201cthe beneficial role of this kind of revisionary theatre in the experience of (sociocultural) trauma,\u201d and these work\u2019s conduciveness towards \u201ccarving out space for the advancement of existing an cultivation of new cross\/inter\/transcultural bonds between Greek and Latinx culture(s)\u201d (16\u201317). The book then moves the reader into an in-depth study of what it calls the tragic mode<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Modus Vivendi <\/em>section of the chapter on the tragic, the text argues for the tragic not as an essence<\/em> but as a mode<\/em>, enabling it to locate the tragic in a more historical, philosophical and political context. The most trenchant justification for this chapter\u2019s argument comes in the form of an assertion that \u201cto find no meaning in suffering is to leave history not only unredeemed but unmourned and forgotten\u201d (64). By drawing on ideas from writers as diverse as Augusto Boal and Friedrich Nietzsche, an alignment between the tragic and a therapeutic paradigm is attempted, thus asserting a regenerative power to both real world and dramatized tragic events, situation and scenarios going as far as to argue the tragic as \u201cpolitically significant, and even radically transformative\u201d (66).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book frames its next three chapters: La Malinche<\/em>, The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea<\/em> and Mojada<\/em> as representations of \u201cMestizx<\/em> Medeas\u201d based on the exploration of this character\u2019s mythology. It is in this section that the book begins to read more like an edited collection rather than a unified monograph. The opportunity to locate writers like Moraga and Morton in their proper context, as the trailblazers of Greek adaptations into the Chicana\/o experience, is passed up in favor of a more compartmentalized analysis of their individual works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then too there is the omission of relevant information concerning these writers. For example, nothing is said of Moraga\u2019s controversial stance on inclusive pronouns and transgender people. This is an incongruous omission given the text\u2019s critical analysis of the plays as they pertain to queer sexuality and its intersectionality with historical, commercial and political exchanges. The loose attention to grammatical conventions further distracts from the arguments of the text, and in the latter part of the book, one realizes that the text\u2019s commitment to critically examining these plays is imbued by an excessive generosity that prevents it from exploring some significant problems with the material. Chief among them being the dismal level of Spanish language writing fluency some of the featured writers possess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Alfaro\u2019s blatant misspelling of Bruja<\/em> as \u201cBruha\u201d (116) is glossed in the text and goes without comment; as does his maladroit sprinkling of Spanish language words and phrases in many of his plays. To credit Alfaro with \u201cfirmly situating\u201d his plays \u201con a linguistic and cultural borderlands\u201d (120) demands a more robust treatment. More generally, however ,nothing is said about the possibility of these adaptations being manifestations of a Colonial mindset that delivers some of these writers to embrace Greek narratives to shield themselves from their deeply rooted inferiority complexes and overall feeling of inadequacy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latter part of the book is comprised of chapters dealing with Oedipus, Elekta and Iphigenia along with production histories of their corresponding plays: Oedipus el Rey<\/em>, Electricidad<\/em>, and Iphgenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart: A \u201cRave\u201d Fable (Iphigenia Crash)<\/em>. Beginning with a section that sets the stage for the ways that each of these plays are grounded in or based on Greek source material, the text then explains how each play formulates \u201ctheir radical political\u201d and \u201ctherapeutic function\u201d (256). It is in the final chapter dedicated to analyzing Svich\u2019s work that the text is most engaging since it provides the clearest reading of any of the plays and demonstrates the skill with which Iphigenia Crash<\/em> mobilizes both theatricality and dramatic irony to create a true composite of its Greek and Latinx sources. In fact, Svich\u2019s Iphigenia Crash<\/em> and Morton\u2019s La Malinche<\/em> are proof that Latinx writers can draw from Greek myths not simply to follow in the steps of the ancient Greeks, but to rather, seek what they sought. The book closes with a chapter caleld Epilegomena<\/em> which hopes that its message will \u201cfurther enrich existing accounts of the peculiarities\u201d (253) of the Latinx theater landscape. I share Delikonstantinidou\u2019s hope since this book, with all its challenges, stands as an important contribution by a writer who writes in genuine solidarity with a people who, at the end of her book, will know themselves a little bit more and, by Socrates\u2019 measure, be a little bit wiser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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*<\/a>Guillermo Avil\u00eds-Rodr\u00edguez<\/strong>\u00a0is a PhD candidate in the Theatre and Performance Studies department at UCLA and a Lecturer in the Chicana\/o Studies and Theatre Departments at California State University, Northridge.\u00a0Among his article publications are \u201cTheatre and Transit: A Transit-Oriented Site-Specific Triptych\u201d in\u00a0Theatre Forum;<\/em>\u00a0\u201cDarning\u00a0Zoot Suit<\/em>\u00a0for the Next Generation\u201d in\u00a0Aztlan: a journal of Chicano studies<\/em>; \u201cEthics and Site-Based Theatre: A Curated Discussion\u201d in Theatre History Studies<\/em> (Co-authored), and the forthcoming (fall, 2021) \u201cPlaying Hopscotch in Traffic\u201d in the Cambridge Opera Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2021 Guillermo Avil\u00eds-Rodr\u00edguez
Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Creative<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/Cover-Scan-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":259,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/who-are-the-hypocrites-moliere-in-the-know\/","url_meta":{"origin":293,"position":0},"title":"Who Are the Hypocrites? Moli\u00e8re in the Know","author":"Guillermo Avil\u00eds-Rodr\u00edguez","date":"May 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Aikaterini Delikonstantinidou* The Cabal of Hypocrites or Moli\u00e8re, written by Mikhail Bulgakov. Produced by the National Theatre of Greece, Main Stage, 6 February 2021. Directed by Stathis Livathinos; translated by Leonidas Karantzas; set and costumes by Eleni Manilopoulou; music by Theodore Abazis; movement by Ageliki Stellatou; lighting by Alekos Anastasiou.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Performance Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Performance Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/category\/performance-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/Photo-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/Photo-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/Photo-3.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/Photo-3.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":863,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/editors-note\/","url_meta":{"origin":293,"position":1},"title":"Editors\u2019 Note","author":"Guillermo Avil\u00eds-Rodr\u00edguez","date":"June 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Gigi Argyropoulou* and Stefanie Sachsenmaier** This extended issue of Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques explores\u00a0reconfigurations of performance and politics emerging on unstable grounds and has been conceived, created and finalised during a period of shifting conditions that permeated all sorts of aspects of life across the globe. It examines specific performance operations,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Topic"","block_context":{"text":"Special Topic","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/category\/special-topic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/Communication-of-crisis.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/Communication-of-crisis.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/Communication-of-crisis.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/Communication-of-crisis.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":669,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/the-fall-of-greatness-toward-an-aesthetics-of-co-reproduction\/","url_meta":{"origin":293,"position":2},"title":"The Fall of Greatness: Toward an Aesthetics of Co-(re)production","author":"Guillermo Avil\u00eds-Rodr\u00edguez","date":"June 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Cecilie Ullerup Schmidt* Abstract Public reception of artistic inquiries into Danish colonial legacies insistently focuses on singular authorship, quality and visual representation. In public discourse, I argue, collectively uttered needs for decolonization are willfully ignored. Through an analysis of the aesthetics of reception and its entanglement in post-enlightenment onto-epistemologies of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Topic"","block_context":{"text":"Special Topic","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/category\/special-topic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/editorial-featured.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/editorial-featured.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/editorial-featured.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/editorial-featured.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":854,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/unstable-histories-repertoires-of-memory-and-the-making-of-public-spheres-in-contemporary-greece\/","url_meta":{"origin":293,"position":3},"title":"Unstable Histories: Repertoires of Memory and the Making of Public Spheres in Contemporary Greece","author":"Guillermo Avil\u00eds-Rodr\u00edguez","date":"June 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Philip Hager* Abstract Starting from a 2019 activist intervention, whereby a group of women offered their own rendition of Monty Python\u2019s \u201csilly walks\u201d during a student parade that was part of the official celebrations commemorating Greece\u2019s entry in World War II, in this essay I seek to examine and apply\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Topic"","block_context":{"text":"Special Topic","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/category\/special-topic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/image1-11.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/image1-11.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/image1-11.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/image1-11.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":297,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/contemporary-latvian-theatre-a-decade-bookazine\/","url_meta":{"origin":293,"position":4},"title":"Contemporary Latvian Theatre, A Decade Bookazine","author":"Guillermo Avil\u00eds-Rodr\u00edguez","date":"May 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Edited by Lauma Mell\u0113na-Bartkevi\u010da207 pp. Latvian Theatre Labour Association Reviewed by Matti Linnavuori* It seems only a moment ago that Guna Zelti\u0146a edited Theatre in Latvia (2012), and suddenly we have a new edition, Contemporary Latvian Theatre (2020), edited by Lauma Mell\u0113na-Bartkevi\u010da. Has theatre in Latvia really taken such giant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Book Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/category\/book-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/Matti_Linnavuori-140x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":507,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/challenging-settler-colonial-choreographies-during-covid-19-acosia-red-elks-powwow-yoga\/","url_meta":{"origin":293,"position":5},"title":"Challenging Settler Colonial Choreographies During COVID-19: Acosia Red Elk\u2019s Powwow Yoga","author":"Guillermo Avil\u00eds-Rodr\u00edguez","date":"June 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Tria Blu Wakpa* Abstract Scholars have often overlooked the vital knowledge in movement forms with Indigenous roots, such as powwow dance and yoga. 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