Queer Latino/a Performances.


Lockhart, Melissa F. “Queer Representations in Latino Theatre”. Latin American Theatre Review, 1998.

As "gay culture" becomes progressively more mainstream in North America, what can we consider "queer" in queer theatre? For Lockhart, when issues of class, race and culture are left untouched, then queer theatre looses all subversive potential. In turn, while queer culture has tended to move from margin to mainstream, " queer Latino theatre essentially becomes hyperqueer by enacting the multiplicities and contradictions of living within multiple marginal subjectivities". (68) Lockhart does not identify the term "queer" with gay, but rather with any "gender disruption". She locates the relevance of queer theatre in the potential for transforming the (self) representation of the Latino/a community and collective identities. The works analyzed by Lockhart emphasize stereotypes, hybridity and through the dynamics of "passing", the performative aspects of gender, class and race.

Comments

  1. JonOctober 29, 2009 at 5:04 AM

    Heh, your comments are becoming a little shorter and more telegraphic as your deadline comes up, no?

    Anyhow, I didn't quite get the way in which Lockhart sees the relationship between queerness and class, race, and "culture." And what does she mean by "hyperqueer" and how does it relate to the (claimed) move from margin to mainstream.

    Unpack a little...

    ReplyDelete

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