Theater reminiscences: the politics of memory after the expulsion of the Moriscos
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Melissa Figueroa [1]
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[1] Ohio University
Ohio University
Township of Athens, Estados Unidos
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- Localización: Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, ISSN 1463-6204, ISSN-e 1469-9818, Vol. 19, Nº. 3, 2018, págs. 281-296
- Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
This paper explores how theater reminiscences helped Moriscos to strengthen their sense of community in North Africa after their expulsion from Spain (1609–1614). Moriscos in exile remembered early modern Spanish theater so as to deal with the difficult circumstances of losing their land but also to highlight their sense of identity as distinct from that of other Muslims outside the Iberian Peninsula, who did not have a strong theater tradition. By tracing references to theater in two manuscripts written in Tunisia, El manuscrito morisco 9653 de la Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid (Mami 2002. El manuscrito morisco 9653 de la Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid. Madrid: Fundación Ramón Menéndez Pidal.) and Tratado de los dos caminos por un morisco refugiado en Túnez (Galmés de Fuentes 2005. Tratado de los dos caminos por un morisco refugiado en Túnez. Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Instituto Universitario Seminario Menéndez Pidal.), through the lens of memory studies, instances of remembering are viewed as a strategy for Moriscos to celebrate their past but also to recognize their hybrid status in their new lands. I use Jan Assman’s definition of communicative memory as the theoretical framework of this essay and take into consideration the element of space in classical treatises on memory.
