Exploring Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality in Four Spanish Plays

Rezensionen / Stimmen

"To conform, or not to conform, that is the question: / Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles / And by opposing end them." This riveting and powerful book highlights the age-old plight of marginalized groups who deviate from the accepted norms dictated by the powers that be and their desperate struggle for authenticity and the acceptance of a rigid society that severely punishes them for it. Through close readings of two seventeenth-century Spanish plays by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and Luis Velez de Guevara that deal with race and ethnicity and two others from the twentieth-century by Federico Garcia Lorca and Paloma Pedrero that focus on gender and sexual orientation, Professor Bernstein shows that hatred and fear of "the Other" is deeply embedded in the human psyche. Her masterful weaving of contemporary theory elucidates the theatrical works and reveals the playwrights' intent to provoke the audience out of complacency. She makes a compelling case against the bigotry and narrow-mindedness born from ignorance that lead to oppression and injustice and fervently condemns the silent but thunderous guilt of the indifferent. By taking her readers out of their comfort zone she proves that only tolerance of "difference" can lead to freedom and equality for all. -- Susana Rivera, University of New Mexico The impressive study links seventeenth-century dramas of Miguel de Cervantes and Velez de Guevara with the twentieth-century theater of Federico Garcia Lorca and Paloma Pedrero to unmask issues of race and ethnicity and rebellion against heteronormativity. A highly lucid and persuasive analysis. -- Sharon Keefe Ugalde, Texas State University