Towards a rhetoric of presence in exile in the dramatic work of Jorge Díaz and Jerónimo López Mozo

Authors

  • Osvaldo Sandoval Michigan State University

Abstract

This paper analyzes alienation as a consequence of exile in the plays Canción de cuna para un anarquista (2003), by Jorge Díaz, and El olvido está lleno de memoria (2002), by Jerónimo López Mozo. Under the idea of a real and symbolic return in the post-dictatorship societies of the Southern Cone and Spain, the confrontation with reality generates a new trauma, which reveals an alternative discourse that alters a pre-established social order. The idea of exile, based on Edward Said’s formulations in Reflections on Exile and Other Essays (2000), not only means the separation of something, but also results in the loss of that something forever. To speak of exile, (auto) exile or the exiled subject does not mean to restore the condition of loss, but rather, it faces a reality imposed to oblivion. The exile in these plays creates “borders” and “barriers” that become in a type of imprisonment.

Keywords:

Exile, alienation, memory, trauma, post-dictatorship