El teatro cubano entre dos aguas: dos siglos y dos orillas (1986-2019)

My thesis studies a selected group of Cuban dramatists who published in Cuba during the period between 1989-2019 and others who wrote in the USA from 1986 to 2009. Despite not being sufficiently recognized by critics, contemporary Cuban theater played a prominent role in late twentieth-century Hispanic and Latin-American literature. This investigation analyzes how these dramatists reimagined the themes, plot devices, and scenarios used in traditional plays in order to challenge governmental authoritarianism in Cuba and express their experience as a minority in the USA. My dissertation posits that both the theater written in Cuba and the US by Cuban writers during the second part of the 20th century exists as a single body. Both sides examine in their theater traditions of power, politics, and man’s individual problems in very similar ways. A large part of the intellectual and political centers of power in both the historical exile and the island of Cuba represents the interests of hegemonic hierarchies and has rejected the concept of the similar nature of these two theatrical movements as a bridge for dialogue among Cubans. My thesis analyzes current discussions about theater performance within broader conversations about the relationship between the economic, social, and political realities on both sides of the ocean. It builds upon contemporary currents in dramatic literature by exploring how Cuban dramatic texts provide a new and creative space in which to contest the Cuban Revolution\u27s hegemony while developing at the same time a unique new corpus as a single body