(A)Musing Matters: Humor in Contemporary Ecuadorian Literature

(A)Musing
Matters: Humor in
Contemporary
Ecuadorian Literature
Contemporary Ecuadorian Theatre: Laughing at Things That
Matter
(A)Musing Matters
 Amusing: Comicality, delight, fresh perspective, curious, funny
 Muse/Musing: inspiration , invention, creativity
 Musing refers to reflection and contemplation
 A of Amusing: speaks to reception. Akin to amoral, some get the gist
of the humorous representation and others do not
 Matters: (verb) has an impact; (noun) refers to events and ideas that
are social and identifiable. These are matters that cause dis-temper
and can be addressed through humorous representation; Matters
(verb) ooze like an infected eye. The mattering is unsightly and
symptomatic. Amusing matters reveal and irritation and matteriing
provides some relief but no cure. Amusement is not a cure.
Humorous representation brings awareness, provides a space for
creative perspectives that are funny but comicality is an experience
not a solution.
The function of humor in 20th
century Ecuadorian theatre.
En el siglo XX
Que en el siglo XX
no hay pena, dolor
no hay amor, persona
o traición
o ilusión
que no se logre
que no se logre comprar
sepultar
con muy poco dinero.
bajo una capa de alegre olvido.
Ubidia. Adiós Siglo XX Teatro Ecuadoriano 254
Amusing Matters and
Truncation of the Soul
 In Ecuadorian fiction, the truncation of the spirit or
soul is the thread that seems to reach across
playwrights and dramatic representations from the
1980s to the present.
 The is no space for psychological or emotional
development, for real questioning of ideas and
concepts.
Guayasamín. El grito III. http://www.guayasamin.org/pages/2_obra_edad_ira.htm
Amusing matters are admissible because
they cannot be considered threatening.
 As writers explore the fragile borders between
fantasy and realism, they allow us to question the
validity of what we consider “real,” or “fantasy”
and what may be seriously “amiss” in that
interpretation.
 Comicality permits the exploration of what could
possibly matter by exposing exaggerated
representations of serious business, rendering these
potentially serious issues as both authentic and
distorted.
Ecuadorian Identities that
Matter
 In the past twenty years, playwrights like Arístides
Vargas, Cristián Cortez, Viviana Cordero and Peky
Andino have sought avenues for globalizing Ecuadorian
theatrewithout much success.
 Forging an articulate Ecuadorian identity (instead of
diverse identities) has been a literary failure. What has
been successful, although not popular, is the theme of
searching for an identity and investigating the truncation
of the spirit. We see it in narrative, poetry and theatre.
 The truncation of the space for development of an identity
that can thrive is the common theme of published plays
in Ecuador since 1980.
(A)Musing Matters for the
stage!
 The state of contemporary Ecuadorian theatre
 Where are the stages?
 Where are the scripts ?
 Who are the actors? Who are the playwrights?
 What are the (a)musing matters?
Muses and Comicality
lures the spectator into taking
time to consider important matters turned
on their head
: allows spectators to connect
briefly with realities beyond their own
Spectators get a laugh and a
reprieve. Actors get a coin.
La Marujita se ha muerto
con leucemia
 Luis Miguel Campo Yanez’s 1990 comedy breaks all
records for stage production (nearly 2000 performances
in Ecuador, New York, Madrid)
 Spin offs 4 plays, 300 theatrical interludes:
 Marujas Entretereques
 Muy viejas para verdes
 Marujas navideñas
 Las Marujitas se mueren de iras
20th year celebration of “La Marujita”).
http://www.marthaormaza.com
La Marujita se ha muerto
de leucemia
 Short costumbrista style commedia dell’arte with
burlesque sketches of stereotypical Ecuadorian
regional identities
 An amusing striptease of what is funny (and tragic)
about social distraction.
 Amusing gloss on the tragic representation of
Chehkov’s “The Cherry Orchard”a la ecuatoriana.
 As in Góngora’s Piramo y Tisbe the protagonists are
casquilucios (nitwits masquerading as gente de bien)
Burlesque striptease: flagellation and
exposure without pain
What happens in a burlesque comedy?
Spectators laugh at ridiculous haughtiness for what
it is: a brilliant but shabby cover-up for characters
who expose who they really are… in this case,
women who propose themselves as the pillars of
society but who, because they are nitwits, are inept
at everything. . . Except making others laugh at
their foolishness.
(A)Musement from the de-fluffed,
de-stuffed, and de-flated
 What does it mean to deflate hypocrisy with
humorous representation?
 SARA:
No… Digo que lo que le ha pasado a la Aurelia es
como “El jardín de los cerezos”…
 ENGRACIA: ¿De quién era el jardín de los cerezos?
 SARA:
De Chejov.
 ENGRACIA: Ah sí… De Chejov… El también es cuencano, ¿no?
 The flattening of comicality and tragedy here relies on a flattening of
the arrogant hypocricy of Sara and Engrancia’s ignorance.
What are the amusing
matters?
 False generosity, fraudulent medical care, hypocrisy,
ignorance…

SARA:
¿Cómo en Francia? ¡Jesús! Los cuencanos ya se han
afrancesado… Ve, mamía, para que sepas, ni en tiempos de los Borbones
hemos comido comida francesa, sino bien nacional, eso sí.

AURELIA:
Con borbones o sin borbones, en Cuenca nos sentamos a
la mesa con doce cubiertos.

SARA:
Disculparás, nomás, madame, pero te has olvidado de
poner los otros diez, porque aquí solo hay una cuchara y un
tenedor.
Here the illusion of ridiculous opulence dissolves into the poignant
and funny remark about the spartan table setting.
Theatrical comicality requires appropriate timing and
delivery, visualization, pertinent impertinence and a
willing audience.

SARA: ¡Bueno, punto final a tanta discusión! Si se dejan de peleas les
doy la receta de las choclotandas.
 ENGRACIA: Choclotandas, en fin… Oiga Aurelita, después me
da la receta de los buñuelos…
 SARA:
Cincuenta tazas de choclo tierno. Cincuenta de
choclo maduro…
 AURELIA:
regimiento.
¡Vaya, hombre! La receta ha sido para un
 ENGRACIA: ¿Desgranado el choclo?
So, why is comic theatre in Ecuador such
serious funny business?.
When done well, comic theatre is attractive to
many, accessible to most, memorable and
therefore profitable.
Contemporary comic theatre is also an
appropriate medium for exposing the
outrageous focus on the insignificant,
nonsensical preoccupations of a material,
boastful world. By exposing the fraud, mirthful
laughter can create a minute and fragile space to
glimpse at what is left once the secret of social
fraud or social madness is made public.
We muse about many things that do not
matter. But amusing matters.
 Distortion, exaggeration and grotesque bloating of
the ordinary needs to be “sent up” and “blown out”
for us to see a sham as a sham, to see illusion as
illusion and to contemplate and reflect.
 As we experience comicality, we laugh. At that
precious, pleasurable moment, we experience what
is truly liberating. For that brief and artificially
induced moment, we take great pleasure in being
the ones in the know.
Images

El Grito III. Guayasamín. http://www.guayasamin.org/pages/2_obra_edad_ira.htm. 10/19/10.

Las Marujitas. From Martha’s website. Marta Ormaza website announcing the 30th year celebration of
“La Marujita” (1990-2010). http://www.marthaormaza.com/ Consulted 10/18/20.

Banco Central. Cuenca. Ecuador. Photo by Jim Grabowska.

Angel. Cuenca, Ecuador. Photo by Jim Grabowska.