Pragmatic Liberation and the Politics of Puerto Rican Diasporic Drama explores the work of a unique group of playwrights--Puerto Rican dramatists writing in the United States--who offer a model of political engagement. As members of the Puerto Rican diaspora, they have a heightened awareness of the systematic discrimination and the colonial citizenship created by Puerto Rico’s territorial status. Pragmatic Liberation analyzes the work of established playwrights as well as work that has previously received little attention in the world of theater studies, including René Marqués’s Palm Sunday. The book demonstrates how these playwrights use basic strategies of dramatic world building, premise, and given circumstances to model a nuanced way of moving toward liberation, while sensitive to the potential impact these actions might have on those closest to us. This is a crucially important model that needs more attention in our currently polarized political moment.
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction. Given Circumstances, Premise, and Pragmatic Strategies of Liberation
- Chapter 1. From Palm Sunday to REVOLT!: Rethinking the Political Horizon of Puerto Rican
- Diasporic Drama
- Chapter 2. Symbolic Action as Pragmatic Politics: Lolita on the Stage
- Chapter 3. Diasporic Return and the Limits of Pragmatic Liberation
- Chapter 4. Before Revolution, Honesty?: The Everyday Pragmatics of Activist Work
- Chapter 5. After the Revolution: Massacres, Collateral Damage, and Moving Forward
- Conclusion. The Labyrinth of Free Association and Sustainable Pragmatic Liberation
- Notes
- References
Jon D. Rossini is Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance and Performance Studies, at the University of California, Davis.
