THE RACIAL LIMITATIONS OF FREEDOM IN SANTIAGO RUSIÑOL’S LLIBERTAT!

COLEMAN, JEFFREY K.

doi:https://doi.org/10.3828/CATR.33.1

COLEMAN, JEFFREY K.

Catalan Review (2019), 33, (1), 1–17.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/CATR.33.1
Language: English
Pages: 17

Abstract

Santiago Rusiñol’s 1901 play Llibertat! is known as a harsh critique of Catalan liberalism. Little scholarly attention, however, has been devoted to the racialized nature in which Rusiñol frames his satire. This article will demonstrate that the play uses the rejection of the racialized Other (Jaumet Negre) not only to highlight the hypocrisy of liberal Catalan political rhetoric but also as a way to critique the notion of freedom as a societal ideal. As Josep Maria Mestres’s 2013 mise en scène demonstrates, freedom does exist in Catalonia, but only for some, thus establishing a connection between the racial injustice experienced by Jaumet Negre and the racialized tension that has emerged in contemporary Catalonia as a result of immigration.

Read now (free)

If you have private access to this content, please log in with your username and password here

WORKS CITED

Actitudes hacia la inmgiración (VI). Observatorio Español del Racismo y la Xenofobia, 2012. Google Scholar

Balibar, Etienne, and Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein. Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities. Verso, 1991. Google Scholar

Bogues, Anthony. “And What About the Human?: Freedom, Human Emancipation, and the Radical Imagination.” boundary 2, Vol. 39, No. 3, 2012, 29–46. Google Scholar

Bruna, Teresa. “Mestres dirigeix ‘Llibertat’ de Rusiñol amb un gran repartiment al TNC.” Teatralnet: Revista Digital D’artes Escèniques, 2013. Google Scholar

Casacuberta, Margarida. Santiago Rusiñol i el teatre per dins. Institut del Teatre, Diputació de Barcelona, 1999. Google Scholar

Diccionari de la llengua catalana. “Llibertat.” 2ª ed. Institut d’Estudis Catalans, 2007. Google Scholar

Gordon, Lewis R. Existentia Africana: Understanding Africana Existential Thought. Routledge, 2000. Google Scholar

Hormigón, Juan Antonio. “¡Libertad!” Llibertat! / ¡Libertad! Edited by Santiago Rusiñol, Asociación de Directores de Escena de España, 2000, 5–13. Google Scholar

Mestres, Josep Maria. Personal Interview, July 27, 2015. Google Scholar

Moreno Cullell, Vicente. “La immigració a Catalunya en el segle XX: de l’èxode rural a les primers migracions peninsulars (1877–1939).” Sàpiens. blogs.sapiens.cat/socialsenxarxa/2011/05/26/la-immigracio-a-catalunya-en-el-segle-xx-de-l’exoderural-a-les-primeres-migracions-peninsulars-1877-1939/#. Accessed May 5, 2019. Google Scholar

Ordóñez, Marcos. “Proclama antirracista.” El País, “Cultura,” June 4, 2013. Google Scholar

Roberts, Neil. Freedom as Marronage. U of Chicago P, 2015. Google Scholar

Rubio Jiménez, Jesús. “Libertad!” de Santiago Rusiñol, o de como negros e intelectuales son hermanos.” Llibertat! / ¡Libertad! Edited by Santiago Rusiñol. Asociación de Directores de Escena de España, 2000, 15–42. Google Scholar

Rusiñol, Santiago. Llibertat. Ediciones l’Albí, 2010. Google Scholar

Rusiñol, Santiago. Obres completes. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Editorial Selecta, 1973. Google Scholar

Sexton, Jared. “The Social Life of Social Death: On Afro-pessimism and Black Optimism.” InTensions, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2011. Google Scholar

Soler, Toni. “No oblideu evitar parlar català i respondre ‘sí, bwana’. Tranquils que a la nit se’n van.” Twitter, @soler_toni, 11:27, October 8, 2017. twitter.com/soler_toni/status/916958133506977793. Accessed May 5, 2019. Google Scholar

Sosa-Velasco, Alfredo J. “Reconsideració d’un dramaturg català: el teatre ideològic d’Henrik Ibsen a Llibertat! de Santiago Rusiñol.” Hispanic Research Journal, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2008, 231–246. Google Scholar

If you have private access to this content, please log in with your username and password here

Details

Author details

COLEMAN, JEFFREY K.

Catalan Review