Diana Raznovich

The Argentine author and cartoonist Diana Raznovich in 1998 in a typical coffee house in Buenos Aires

Diana Raznovich (born May 12, 1945 in Argentina ) is an Argentine writer , theater maker and cartoonist .

Life

Diana Raznovich was born into a Jewish immigrant family who fled the persecution of Jews in the Russian Empire on her father's side and anti-Semitism in Vienna on her mother's side . Her father Marcos was a pediatrician, her mother Berta a dentist; soon two younger brothers were born. She grew up in Buenos Aires in the Flores district , where she went to school and learned to play the piano at an early age. At 16, she published her first volume of poetry, Tiempo de Amar , with rebellious, nihilistic texts. Her first play, El Guardagente , premiered in 1970 at the Teatro de la Sociedad Hebraica Argentina, soon followed by the drama Marcelo, el Mecánico (later under the title Jardín de otoño ).

When the military dictatorship broke out , she had to go into exile in Spain in 1976 . From 1976 to 1983 she lived in Madrid , where she later returned for several years (1988 to 1993). During this time in Europe, the first translations of her pieces into Italian and German appeared. Together with other theater people she founded the Centro de Estudios Teatrales, where she also gave acting lessons. She traveled to Paris, Rome and Germany, where she worked intensively with the Latin American theater and media society. As a result of these contacts, her two novels Para que se cumplan todos tus deseos and Mater erótica were translated into German and several of her plays were staged and performed in German .

In 1981 Diana Raznovich returned to Argentina for a short time to take part in the first cycle of the Teatro Abierto with the one-act Desconcierto , an initiative of various theater makers who wanted to stir public awareness with critical plays in the last years of the military dictatorship. The Teatro Abierto brought together playwrights, directors , actors and stage technicians who were all on the so-called “black list” and had to fear for their safety. In 1981 they produced a cycle of 21 one-act plays by various authors, which was intended to make it clear that the Argentine artists had not bowed to the tactics of the dictatorship and could not be silenced. Some of the other participants found Raznovich's Desconcierto inappropriate; she was asked to withdraw the play and submit another, but refused. Some colleagues “said I was frivolous. I took that as a compliment. My attitude and style received no approval and I found it wonderfully transgressive. " The military reacted violently and set the Teatro Picadero on fire the night Desconcierto was on. Teatro Abierto moved to another establishment , of all places , to the Tabarís , in which, later in the evening, after the theater performances, dubious revues took place, exactly the kind that Raznovich criticized. The calculation behind this was: The military who frequented the vaudeville theater would probably not easily destroy a place that they associated with their own pleasure. That was an interesting constellation because the audience who wanted to go to a political theater had to pass by the posters of half-naked striptease dancers.

Diana Raznovich has been a member of the Junta Directiva of ARGENTORES, an association of Argentine theater professionals, since 1998, and as such was responsible for their website. At the turn of the millennium 1999/2000 she performed a performance together with Astrid Hadad in Mexico.

Prizes and awards

• John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship 1992
• Premio de Teatro for Objetos personales , Festival de Teatro de Cádiz, 1993
• XVII. Premio Mujeres Progresistas, 2014 (Spain)

plant

Plays

• Buscapiés (1967), first performed in 1968, Sala Casacuberta, Teatro Municipal General San Martín, Buenos Aires. Director: Mario Rolla.
• Plaza hay una sola (1968/9): performance piece in eight scenes, world premiere as street theater: Plaza Roberto Arlt, Buenos Aires, director: Mario Rolla.
• El guardagente (first performance 1970, Teatro de la Sociedad Hebraica Argentina, director: Rudy Chernicoff)
• Contratiempo (first performance 1971, Teatro Payró, Buenos Aires, director: Ricardo Monti)
• Texas en carretilla (first performance 1972, Teatro Odeón ) for children, with background music
• Plumas blancas . Ediciones Dédalos. Buenos Aires, 1974.
• Marcelo el mecánico (first performance 1975, Teatro Del Globo, Buenos Aires)
• Jardín de otoño (first performance 1977, Teatro Rex, Madrid). Published version: Jardín de otoño. Comedia de la Provincia , Subsecretaría de Cultura, Dirección de Escuelas y Cultura, Provincia de Buenos Aires, 1985.
• El desconcierto (first performance 1981, Teatro Abierto, Teatro Picadero, Teatro Tabarís, Buenos Aires, directed by Hugo Urquijo)
• Autógrafos (1983, musical comedy, Teatro Lorange, Buenos Aires, directors: Ricky Pashkus and Diana Raznovich).
• Objetos personales (monologue, 1989)
• Casa Matriz (world premiere 1986, Teatro Studio, Rome, Italy, director: Saviana Scalffi). Full evening one-act act. Published version in: Salirse de madre . Editorial Croquiñol. Buenos Aires, 1988.
• De la cintura para abajo (different versions from 1991, 1993, 1994, 1999)
• De atrás para adelante (1996), three-act comedy, world premiere at Teatro Luisa Vehil, Buenos Aires, 2013, directed by Rubén Hernández Miranda
• Máquinas divinas (first performance 1996, Sala ETC, Centro Cultural San Martín , Buenos Aires, director: Maricarmen Arnó)
• Fast food a la velocidad de la muerte (1996), first performance 2009, La Plata, Grupo Layave. Published version in: María Claudia André (ed.): Antología de escritoras argentinas contemporáneas . Editorial Biblos, 2004, pp. 177–192.
• "Jardín de otoño", "Casa Matriz" and "De atrás para adelante". Prólogo de Diana Taylor. In: Teatro Americano Actual . Ed. Casa de America. Madrid, 2001.

Anthology Teatro Abierto

• Giella, Miguel Ángel (ed.): Teatro Abierto 1981 . Vol I: Teatro Argentino bajo vigilancia. Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 1991.
• Teatro Abierto 1981 . Vol II: 21 estrenos. Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 1992.

Desconcierto

In Spanish, the title means a play on words with the ambiguity of the word "desconcierto": On the one hand, in common parlance, "desconcierto" means something like "uncertainty", "confusion", "dismay", also "disorder, confusion, disturbance" or " Dissension, disagreement, disruption ”. But on the other hand, the author takes the etymology literally and forms by the prefix "DES" ( "contains" or "un-") a kind of allegory for the political situation in Argentina during the military dictatorship in the sense of opposite of a concert , so for example: a “non-concert”, a non-organized, prevented concert. This is useful in order to implement such a concept on stage with theatrical means.

In this monologue or one-person piece , the pianist Irene della Porta is generously paid by her manager to play Ludwig van Beethoven's Pathétique on a concert grand piano that does not produce a single note. This is a plausible metaphor for the situation of censorship the Argentine people were experiencing at the time of the premiere . The audience buys concert tickets to watch Irene coax sounds from nothing. She speaks to the audience and puts on an absurd show . This pact with mediocrity has brought her enormous professional success, the audience flocks to her “Desconciertos” in droves to applaud her failure. In between the artist also does a striptease, she stands almost naked in front of the audience. At the end of the piece, the piano miraculously regains its voice. But after so many silent concerts, Irene no longer knows how to make 'real' music. Fingers that have become insensitive produce hard, dissonant tones. Shocked and devastated by her failure as an artist, her joy is great when the piano falls silent again.

On the surface, Desconcierto is a criticism of the Argentine artists, as well as their audiences, who were willing to conform to the censorship conditions imposed by the military government while persuading themselves that they were in fact engaged in meaningful communication . It is interesting that silence and public silence in Argentina were interpreted both as complicity with the system and as an act of resistance . Desconcierto , however, seems to be aimed at those Argentines who became accomplices of the dictatorship and whose passivity made a culture of terror possible. The 'show' is produced by the rulers themselves. At the same time, it's about gender identity as a performance : Irene in a low-cut, tight-fitting red evening dress, as a star, that was one of the few visible roles for women in the patriarchal system at the time. She is the woman as a projection of patriarchal fantasies that is presented on the stage. The female image of the "Madre Patria" served the military as a projection surface for the community spirit of all Argentines. Desconcierto paradoxically stands for both the failure and the power of art in the context of the “ dirty war ”. The grotesque tones that the piano produces oppose the aestheticization of violence and the commercialization of culture . Performances in Germany, Spain, Italy, England a. a. show that the play contains not only allusions to the military dictatorship in Argentina, but to a general human condition of followers .

Novels

• Para que se cumplan todos tus deseos (Novela). Madrid: Editorial Exadra, 1989.
• Mater Erótica . Barcelona: Robinbook, 1992.

Poems

• Tiempo de amar y otros poemas . Buenos Aires: Edic. Nuevo Día, 1963.
• Caminata en tu sombra . Buenos Aires: Edit. Stilcographer, 1964.
• De personajes altos, imposibles . (unpublished)
• Klezmer y Klezmer (poemas para decir) (unpublished)
• El día después (unpublished)

Cartoons

• In the following magazines:
  • Diario Tiempo Argentino, Revista Tres Puntos, Revista Plural , all Argentina.
  • Revista Raíces , Madrid.
  • Suplemento de la Mujer. Diario La tercera . Chile.
  • Clarín , Argentina
• In book form:
  • Cables pelados . Volumes 1 and 2. Buenos Aires, 1987
  • Sopa de lunares . Madrid: hotelpapel ediciones, 2007
  • Mujeres pluscuamperfectas . Madrid: hotelpapel ediciones, 2008
  • Divinas y chamuscadas . Madrid: hotelpapel ediciones, 2010
• Calendar: Aprópiate de tu tiempo . Ediciones La Morada, Chile.

Exhibitions, concerts and other things

• 1996: Exhibition of caricatures: “La Morada” Gallery, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
• 1997: Presentation of the “Aprópiate de tu tiempo” calendar, idea and caricatures DR, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires. Feria del Libro. Estación Mapocho, Santiago de Chile.
• 1998: "Klezmer y Klezmer". Jewish klezmer music with music by César Lerner and Marcelo Moguilevsky and poems by Diana Raznovich. Sociedad Hebraica Argentina and Centro Cultural Marc Chagall
• 1999: "Diana y sus Tintas Chinas, humor de minas". Music by Valeria Cini and Miranda Nardelli, texts by Diana Raznovich. Festival de Teatro Hispano in Miami, Florida.

Translations

In German

• Autumn crocus . German by Gerd-Rainer Prothmann. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag, 1987.
• Concert of silence . German by Ilse Schliessmann. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 1987.
• Personal stuff . German by Gerd-Rainer Prothmann. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 1990.
• White feathers, black feathers . German by Gerd-Rainer Prothmann. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 1990.
• My son's friend . From the chip. by Sonja Kübler. Munich: Heyne Verlag, 1994.
• Oliverio Pan, magician . From the argentin. Chip. by Ilse Layer. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 1995.
• Fight below the belt . German by Sybille Martin. In: Adler / Röttger Vol. 2, pp. 325–374.
• Casa Matriz . From the chip. by Sonja Kübler. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag Theater, 1993, first edition 1994 Frankfurt
• "The Liberation of Señora Sara. Postmodern Comedy", in: With eyes in hand: Argentine Jews tell stories . Edited and translated by Erna Pfeiffer . Vienna: Mandelbaum Verlag, 2014, pages 194–200

In English

• "Personal Belongings". In: Argentine Jewish Theater, a critical anthology . Edited and translated by Nora Glickman and Gloria Waldman. Lewisburg, Bucknell University Press, 1996 (world premiere 1984, Sydney, Australia). Director: Ross Horin.
• Defiant Acts: four plays by Diana Raznovich / Actos Desafiantes: cuatro obras de Diana Raznovich . Ed. Diana Taylor & Victoria Martínez. London: Bucknell University Press, 2000.

literature

In German

• Adler, Heidrun / Röttger, Kati (eds., 1998): Gender: Performance - Pathos - Politics. The post-colonial theater of Latin American women authors . Frankfurt: Vervuert. (Theater in Latin America; 1). ISBN 3-89354-321-X . In it: Diana Taylor: "Frivolous Guns: Diana Raznovich's Acts of Resistance, pp. 73-88"
• Adler, Heidrun / Röttger, Kati (eds., 1998): Theater plays by Latin American authors . Frankfurt: Vervuert. (Theater in Latin America; 2).
• Röttger, Kati / Roeder-Zerndt, Martin (eds., 1997): Theater in the rubble of systems. Documentation of an encounter between the cono Sur and Germany . Frankfurt a. M .: Passed away.
• "You have not been able to erase our memories". Jewish-Argentine authors in conversation. Edited and translated by Erna Pfeiffer. Vienna: Löcker-Verlag, 2016 (edition pen, 39)

In Spanish

• Castillejos, Manuel. “El valor del sonido en Buscapiés de Diana Raznovich.” In: Mujer y sociedad en America: IV Simposio Internacional : Vol. 1. Juana Alcira Arancibia, introd. Westminster, CA; Mexicali: Instituto Literario y Cultural Hispánico; Univiversidad Autónoma de Baja, California, 1988, pp. 233-240.
• Graham Jones, Jean. “Decir 'No': El aporte de Bortnik, Gambaro y Raznovich al Teatro Abierto '81.” In: Teatro argentino durante El Proceso (1976-1983) . Juana A. Arancibia and Zulema Mirkin, eds. Buenos Aires: Vinciguerra, 1992.
• Glickman, Nora. “Parodia y desmitificación del rol femenino en el teatro femenino de Diana Raznovich.” In: Latin American Theater Review 28: 1 (1994): 89-100.
• López, Liliana. "Diana Raznovich: una cazadora de mitos." In: Drama de Mujeres . Halima Tahan, ed. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Ciudad Argentina.
• Martínez, Martha. “Tres nuevas dramaturgas argentinas: Roma Mahieu, Hebe Uhart y Diana Raznovich.” In: Latin American Theater Review , Spring (1980): 39-45.

In English

• Taylor, Diana. "Introduction." In: Defiant Acts: Four Plays by Diana Raznovich . Ed. Diana Taylor and Victoria Martínez. Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 2002.
• Taylor, Diana. Disappearing Acts. Spectacles of Gender and Nationalism in Argentina´s Dirty War. Durham and London: Duke UP, 1997.
• Taylor, Diana. "What is Diana Raznovich Laughing About?" In: Holy Terrors: Latin American Women Perform. Women & Performance. A Journal of Feminist Theory . 11.2 (2000): 73-93.

Web links

• Diana Raznovich's homepage (in Spanish and English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ quoted by Diana Taylor in Adler / Röttger Vol. 1, p. 74.
2. ↑ cf. Taylor in Adler / Röttger vol. 1, p. 79
3. ↑ cf. Taylor in Adler / Röttger, Vol. 1, pp. 74f.
4. ↑ actually: "Mother-Fatherland", the idea of ​​home as an allegorical female figure
5. ↑ cf. Taylor in Adler / Röttger, Vol. 1, pp. 77f.