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Race, Memory, and Spectral Performance

The Theatre of Silvia Albert Sopale

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2025

Marcelo Carosi
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Abstract

Two plays by Afro-Spanish playwright Silvia Albert Sopale—Blackface y otras vergüenzas and La Moreneta—illustrate José Esteban Muñoz’s concept of “disidentification” by which marginalized artists hijack and reshape dominant cultural texts that exclude minority voices. Sopale’s work reframes archives and artifacts to confront historical racial violence and its contemporary legacies. Her strategic use of blackface alludes to alternative revaluations of Black identity, disidentifying blackface itself.

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Article
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TDR , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , March 2025 , pp. 68 - 85
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press for Tisch School of the Arts/NYU

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