Defying Wretchedness: Ophelia as representative of Latina women

Abstract

The thesis 'Defying Wretchedness: Ophelia as representative of Latina women' deals with the theatre play ‘12 Ophelias: A Play with Broken Songs’ from Caridad Svich (2008). The play draws inspiration from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1603) and deals with the character Ophelia. I argue that Svich addresses a variety of gender issues. Even more so, she interfuses these with issues relevant to women of diverse cultural background. Svich is an US Latina playwright, songwriter, translator and editor born and raised in the US who comes from a Cuban-Argentine, Spanish-Croatian background. 12 Ophelias belongs to Svich’s key works and reflects her cross-cultural background. In my opinion identity plays an important role in the play emphasizing both gender issues and issues faced by people of Latina/o background. I theorize that Ophelia is of cross-cultural significance and that she can possibly function as an agent for people of Latina/o background. To further examine to what extent this is true the play is analyzed in the light of theatre semiotics, Gender and Latina/o Studies in order to answer the following question: How does Svich employ her concept of Shakespeare’s character Ophelia as presented in her play ‘12 Ophelias: A Play with Broken Songs’ in order to represent women of Latina/o background?