The camp - Grade: B- PDF

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Latin America Through the Arts ...

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October 20, 2018 The Camp by Griselda Gambaro One of the most important playwrights in Latin America is Griselda Gambaro because she always been among the first to recognize changes in the political climate of her country. It is also very known that she tends to examine closely and thoroughly the role of theater and theoretically in Argentina's criminalized society from the 1960s until the end of the dictatorship in 1983. In the playwright of The Camp by Griselda Gambaro, it reads “The Camp (El Campo, 1967) illustrates Argentina’s growing militarism and fascination with fascism.” In this time period, Argentina’s government was in a one-party dictatorship. Griselda Gambaro uses her plays to dramatize the progressive decomposition of social and judicial structures which was mainly designed to keep violence contained and under control. The main focus in this play is what occurred during the dirty war which took place in Argentina, 1974, this was one of the toughest time periods because people went through so much. For instance, individuals would randomly “disappear” and were kept in the concentration camp were killed and tortured. Gambaro’s work speaks a lot of the Nazi regime and European ideals of Nazism. In the early 20th century militaries in Argentina were very well trained by German armies, long after that Nazism ideas were a part of life for those who live in Argentina. The Camp revolves around the political violence and the effects of torture on innocent people who allow themselves to be victims of torture it also depicts a neo-Nazi concentration camp. The Camp portrays a world of complete ambiguity that disorients outsiders. One of the most important characters in this play is Emma, she is an emaciated, flea hidden victim in the camp. Franco uses Emma and forces her to pretend that she is an elegant

woman who is very well presented, she wears wigs over her shaved head. She is forced to walk seductively and perform for the male prisoners who are encouraged to make rude and mocking remarks at her. In the play, Emma met Martin which was supposedly the new accountant for the “school” and right when they met Martin felt as if something was not right. It was like Emma was trying too hard for Martin to like her. For instance in the play The Camp it reads “My public adores me. My last concert was a triumph. People went wild asking for my autograph.” Emma is used to people loving her that the thought of having one person, not like her bothered her. Gambaro is trying to let readers know that women are abused and humiliated because they are women. Not only are they systematically raped but they are also humiliated for assuming the sexual identity that had been unloaded on them. Emma has an important role in this play, the reasons why I decided to analyze her and her actions. Emma can be viewed as being disoriented because of her actions, she seems to lose track of what she is doing or saying throughout the play. To me, it seems as if she is forced to cater to everyone except herself which causes her to slowly lose herself. In the play, it states “They think I don’t have a private life, that...that… I can’t fall in love… have secrets, be private like everyone else…” this shows how much power Franco had over her. All she can ever think of herself is the woman who always has to give concerts and is not sure if she can ever offer more because without her admirers she would be nothing. Furthermore, Gambaro is one of the few Latin American artists that acknowledges that the sexuality of brutality is a huge issue. Gambaro looks at gender to be the socially overdetermined representation and also how easy violence in political violence is directed towards the female body whether it be literally or metaphorically. One of the most surprising parts of this play is when I actually thought Emma was finally going to be free, but it turns out

that she can never be free from Franco. Emma deserves much more and so did every single woman during this time period who went through similar situations....