Reviewed by:

• La nueva dramaturgia puertorriqueña. Trans/acciones de la identidad by Laurietz Seda
• Liza Ann Acosta

In this brief but layered book, La nueva dramaturgia puertorriqueña: Trans/acciones de la identidad, Laurietz Seda proposes an important thesis regarding shifting and contested Puerto Rican identities. Through the insightful analysis of four texts by members of the New Playwrights Generation on the island—Malasangre by Roberto Ramos-Perea, Indocumentados by José Luis Ramos Escobar, El adiestramiento by Teresa Marichal, and Bony and Kin by Carlos Canales—Seda demonstrates how these works illustrate the rupture with the traditional discourse surrounding Puerto Rican national identity. In these works, Seda asserts, “coexisten una multiplicidad de discursos y voces que dan impulso a lo que he dado en llamar la(s) trans/accion(es) [End Page 142] de la identidad” (16). Seda defines trans/action as the conscious use of strategies to live (and survive) in between cultures, borders, genders, and ethnicities by challenging binary constructs. Heterogeneity and fluidity are defining characteristics; essentialism and strictly hierarchal categories are subverted. Notably, this generation of playwrights questions/dismantles previous attempts at a homogenous definition of Puerto Rican identity. Instead, they tackle issues that show the fissures in a monolithic identity: differences in social class and temporary or permanent emigration, for example.

The chapters that follow detail the various strategies these authors apply to a problematized vision of identity. La carreta, by René Marqués, the quintessential play about a national identity tied exclusively to the land, serves as contrast to the ways identity is constructed in each work. With Malasangre, Seda affirms that identity in trans/action is deeply connected to the conflict between economic improvement found in the United States and the need to return to the island to support anti-colonial efforts, while class, gender, and level of education complicate the identity construct around “being” and “feeling” Puerto Rican. With Indocumentados, Seda demonstrates how Ramos Escobar’s use of intertextuality—again using La carreta as counterpoint—shows trans/action at play when a Dominican assumes the identity of a Puerto Rican; race is at the core of the fragmented and constructed identities present in the play. Seda’s analysis of trans/action in Bony and Kin by Canales amplifies the argument that identity is a social construction. Intertextuality, in the form of the gangster movies and TV shows that make up the characters Bony and Kin, displays trans/action via media and technology, which have contributed to transform “los referentes tradicionales de la identidad puertorriqueña” (68), such as the “jíbaro.” Finally, El adiestramiento by Marichal introduces characters who are trained to lose their identity through consumerism, yet they ironically survive through trans/action, by performing and negotiating between two cultures. According to Seda, the characters in the play subvert binary spaces and parody traditional discourses that insist on a monolithic identity.

In conclusion, Seda elevates the New Playwrights as critical voices that uncover the deep problematic issue of identity on the island. La nueva dramaturgia puertorriqueña highlights the need for scholars to study these playwrights more extensively, for students to read plays that stand in contrast with the traditional literary curriculum that requires such texts as La carreta, and perhaps, for all of us to engage more fully with a theater that is a mirror of our colonized condition. [End Page 143]

审核人：

• La nueva Dramaturgia puertorriqueña。Trans/acciones de la identidad作者 Laurietz Seda
• 丽莎安阿科斯塔

在这本简短但层次分明的书中，La nueva Dramaturgia puertorriqueña: Trans/acciones de la identidad中，Laurietz Seda 提出了一个关于波多黎各身份转变和争议的重要论点。通过对岛上新剧作家一代成员的四个文本的深刻分析——罗伯托·拉莫斯-佩雷亚的《马拉桑格勒》 、何塞·路易斯·拉莫斯·埃斯科巴的《无证档案》、特蕾莎·马里查尔的《 El adiestramiento》和《Bony and Kin 》Carlos Canales-Seda 展示了这些作品如何说明与围绕波多黎各民族认同的传统话语的决裂。在这些作品中，Seda 断言，“coexisten una multiplicidad de discursos y voces que dan impulso a lo que he dado en llamar la(s) trans/accion(es) [End Page 142]de la identidad”（16）。Seda 将 trans/action 定义为通过挑战二元结构有意识地使用在文化、边界、性别和种族之间生活（和生存）的策略。异质性和流动性是定义特征；本质主义和严格等级的范畴被颠覆了。值得注意的是，这一代剧作家质疑/瓦解了之前对波多黎各人身份统一定义的尝试。相反，他们解决的问题显示出单一身份的裂痕：例如，社会阶层的差异以及临时或永久的移民。

随后的章节详细介绍了这些作者应用于身份问题的各种策略。由 René Marqués 创作的La carreta是一部关于与土地相关的民族身份的典型戏剧，与每部作品中身份构建的方式形成鲜明对比。通过Malasangre，Seda 确认交易/行动中的身份与美国的经济改善与返回该岛以支持反殖民努力之间的冲突密切相关，而阶级、性别和教育水平则复杂化围绕“存在”和“感觉”波多黎各人的身份构建。在Indocumentados中，Seda 展示了 Ramos Escobar 如何使用互文性——再次使用La carreta作为对位——显示多米尼加人假设波多黎各人身份时的交易/行动；种族是剧中碎片化和建构身份的核心。Seda 在Canales 的《 Bony and Kin 》中对交易/行动的分析放大了身份是一种社会建构的论点。互文性，以构成角色 Bony 和 Kin 的黑帮电影和电视节目的形式，通过媒体和技术展示交易/行动，这有助于改变“los referentes tradicionales de la identidad puertorriqueña”（68），例如“吉巴罗”。最后，El adiestramientoMarichal 介绍的人物受过训练，会因消费主义而失去身份，但具有讽刺意味的是，他们通过交易/行动、通过在两种文化之间进行表演和谈判而幸存下来。塞达认为，剧中的人物颠覆了二元空间，戏仿了坚持单一身份的传统话语。

总之，塞达将新剧作家提升为揭示岛上存在的深层身份问题的批判性声音。La nueva Dramaturgia puertorriqueña强调学者需要更广泛地研究这些剧作家，让学生阅读与传统文学课程形成鲜明对比的戏剧，传统文学课程需要诸如La carreta等文本，也许我们所有人都需要更充分地参与剧院是我们殖民状况的一面镜子。[结束第 143 页]