Nuestro Teatro Clásico Sin Fronteras:PostmodernComediaPerformance and the Globalization of Cultural Patrimony

Abstract

AbstractAlthough comedia performance in Spain is inherently tied to notions of cultural patrimony (and thus implicitly tied to notions of an authentic Spanish classical culture), this article highlights the many ways in which such claims to cultural autochthony rub against the realities of today’s globalized theatrical landscape. This tension involves the long history of nationalistic uses of the comedia dating back to the tradition’s early modern origins as well as the mid-twentieth-century ontological shift generally associated with postmodernism, especially in terms of the privilege given to recycling and simulacra. As globalization accelerated and Spain transitioned to democracy, the use of comedia performance to rearticulate Spanish identity (as practiced by the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico and the Festival de Almagro) demonstrates, through its ever-increasing linkages to foreign cultures, just how elusive any fixed notion of “Hispanidad” is. This article argues for the mutually illuminating dialogue occurring in current comedia performance studies between studies dedicated to the intercultural exchanges inherent in productions outside of Spain and studies dedicated to the nationalistic implications of performing the comedia in Spain as a form of cultural patrimony.