Preface; Alfonsina Storni (1892-1938) is one of the most famous Latin American writers of the twentieth century and is best known as a poet. Her work as journalist and playwright has only just started to receive critical attention in recent years. Therefore, the English translation of two of her dramas for adults is crucial to spread knowledge about this aspect of Storni's work, particularly in the academic and theatrical realms. A representative of the vanguard of her age, Storni used her own life as a well of inspiration, ...
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Preface; Alfonsina Storni (1892-1938) is one of the most famous Latin American writers of the twentieth century and is best known as a poet. Her work as journalist and playwright has only just started to receive critical attention in recent years. Therefore, the English translation of two of her dramas for adults is crucial to spread knowledge about this aspect of Storni's work, particularly in the academic and theatrical realms. A representative of the vanguard of her age, Storni used her own life as a well of inspiration, and her daily actions clearly reflected an Argentine reality that was rarely sympathetic with the status and needs of women. Specifically, the primary value of the plays translated in this volume is their testimony to everyday life, and they present a micro-history of women's world. This testimony also serves to denounce certain social, political and economic shortcomings that characterized modernity in Argentina. Storni's relationship to the world of theater started early in her life, during her adolescence.However, her work as a dramatist for the adult public was most well developed at the end of her career, when she had recovered a bit of her name and held a stable social status. From the aesthetic point of view, Storni did not identify with any particular school or movement. In her plays El amo del mundo (The Master of the World 1927) and La debilidad de Mister Dougall -- a comedy published posthumously -- theme prevails over formal innovation in order to deliver their fundamental message: the rise and defense of a new feminine model. On the other hand, formal experimentation with drama is central to the plays translated in this volume, Dos farsas pirotecnicas (Two Pyrotechnic Farces 1931): Cimbelina en 1900 y pico (Cymbeline in 1900-and-something) and Polixena y la cocinerita (Polyxena and the Little Cook). These plays are among the first of their kind in the Latin American vanguard that use the absurd and the farce as vehicles to criticize social ailments and to articulate an explicit revolutionary project. Unfortunately, Storni's early death precluded the possibility of continuing this kind of experimentation in her dramatic work.The innovative character of her last plays placed her at the forefront of theatrical development in her time, although the emphasis still given to the message and Storni's lack of experience with this kind of writing place some difficulties for the dramatic resolution of the Two Pyrotechnic Farces. Such effect is essentially due to the boundary between tragedy and farce that regulates the staging of any drama in which both genres coexist. This point should be considered in order to better appreciate the obstacles faced by the translator, Dr. Evelia Romano. She met the challenge with rigor and enthusiasm and emerged victorious. In addition to the excellent translation, the exhaustive introduction serves to stage the work of Storni as a playwright for future researchers and performers. Nevertheless, I will stress some of the characteristics of these two plays to demonstrate the relevancy of their translation as well as the difficulties they presented. Two Pyrotechnic Farces are truly innovative. Both plays are rewrites of classic tragedies, one Greek and the other Shakespearean. They differ, however, in their dramatic structure.In Cymbeline in 1900-and-something, the classic text is appropriated and transformed into a modern farce through the use of biting humor. The farce serves not only to counteract the message of the original but also as strong criticism of the social and political circumstances of Storni's context. The readings multiply, since the text denounces simultaneously the patriarchal system, governmental institutions and the political affiliations of some intellectual figures. From the dramatic perspective, Cymbeline...displays vanguard techniques that were relatively new for the time, such as parallel stages - characteristic of the expressionist theater and part
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