Destabilizing Machismo: Masculine and Feminine Constructions in the Theater of Susana Torres Molina

This thesis explores the construction of masculinity in Argentina, as represented in two plays by Susana Torres Molina, _...Y a otra cosa mariposa_ (1981) and _Una noche cualquiera_ (1999). In these two plays, the construction of sexual difference is portrayed as occurring within a masculine point of view, wherein it is explicit that men have the power to define, from a self-referential standpoint, their masculine identity, through contrast with a construction of the female. Rather than consider masculine and feminine as two parts of the same whole, gender, Torres Molina's works represent machismo as a two-part system, with masculine and female as distinct wholes, fundamentally different. The self-referentiality of machismo rejects the participation of women, subordinating and reducing them to the level of the object of conversation, characterized by biological essentialisms, instead of a constructed, subjective identity.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Department dc:contributor.department

History

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Osenda, Natacha Veronica

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Bixler, Jacqueline E.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Farquhar, Sue
• Mollin, Marian B.

• Feminine Writing
• State Terrorism in Argentina
• Susana Torres Molina
• Gender
• Sexual Differences
• Machismo

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-05232003-102851

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/42777