Nation and Theater in Crisis: The Intermedial Revolution of Electra Garrigó

Abstract

Abstract:This article examines the representation of Cubanness in Virgilio Piñera's play Electra Garrigó by analyzing the disruptive presence of different media and technologies onstage. While most critics have explained Cubanness in Electra Garrigó through the use of popular elements and the mixture of different theatrical traditions, less attention has been paid to its revolutionary intermediality. My reading argues that the encounter of different media in the play disrupts the representation and definition of Cuban identity by challenging the stability of the theatrical space. After situating Electra Garrigó in relation to Piñera's poetry and previous debates about Cubanness, I examine how different forms of mediatization such as radio and cinema, among others, problematize not only the specificity of theater in this play, but also conceptions of race, power, and national identity. The final part of the article focuses on the heroine's uncanny metamorphosis into different material elements including domestic objects, fluids, and sounds. With respect to these mutations, I argue that the protagonist herself becomes a complex, failed medium that epitomizes the crisis of theater and Cubanness at the end of the performance.