Counter-essentialist femininity in post-dictatorship Argentine dramaturgy—A comparative study in Northwestern and Patagonian regions

Abstract

During the dictatorial periods, Argentine dramaturgy consolidated a specific

identity rhetoric, which was represented aesthetically and imaginatively through

the “feminized nation”. This essentialist figuration was the object of speeches

pronounced by the dictators, and by the opponents of authoritarian regimes.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the hermeneutic revival of this imaginary

figuration on women in the postdictatorial dramaturgies of the Argentinean Patagonia and Northwestern Argentina, in order to understand their particular poetic procedures and their counter-essentialist identitarian positions. In line with this, we will use theoretical-methodological tools from the anthropology of the imaginary (Wunenburger, 2008), the sociology of culture (Proaño-Gómez, 2002;

Grimson, 2012) and comparative literature (Palermo, 2005; Dubatti, 2008).