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Re-Membering the Past: Memory-Theatre and Tlatelolco

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2022

Jacqueline E. Bixler
Jacqueline E. Bixler*
Affiliation:
Virginia Tech
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Abstract

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This study discusses the responses of Mexican intellectuals to the 1968 massacre in the Plaza de Tlatelolco. Several published studies and anthologies have covered the poetry, narrative, and essays written on the subject, but no such consideration has been given to the theatrical works written and staged since 1968. Jeanette Malkin's theory on memory-theatre, Pierre Nora's “lieux de mémoire,” and Michel Foucault's concept of countermemories all shed light on how these dramatic works function in a changing Mexico, now moving toward authentic democracy and ready to revive a segment of history suppressed and distorted but never forgotten. Of the many plays commemorating the events of 1968, four that focus on the process of memory are analyzed in this essay. Because of the slow democratization of Mexico, the growing maturity of former participants and witnesses, and the postmodern craving for testimony, the repressed memories of Tlatelolco have not faded into oblivion but continue to inspire the dramatic imagination.

Type
Research Reports and Notes
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , 2002 , pp. 119 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 by the University of Texas Press

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