La representación teatral del trabajo de duelo en El cuarto del recuerdo de Mario Cura y en Señora, esposa, niña y joven desde lejos de Marcelo Bertuccio

Abstract

In this article, I examine the ways in which two plays dramatize the ongoing processes experienced by the families of the desaparecidos when they try to come to terms with the political violence in the recent past in Argentina. In particular, I compare the different dramatic techniques employed by Mario Cura in El cuarto del recuerdo (1995) and Marcelo Bertuccio in Señora, esposa, niña y joven desde lejos (1999) as a means to reflect on the theatrical representations of the task of mourning carried out by those individuals who have been affected by the dictatorship. The essay is informed by Dominick LaCapra's work on how societies cope with a traumatic past, and Elizabeth Jelin's work on the politics of memory in the Southern Cone.