Romano, Evelia

Dr. Evelia Romano completed her undergraduate studies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and earned her Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages and Literature at University of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently Professor at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Dr. Romano specializes in contemporary Argentine literature. She has translated the only other play by Storni; published in English, The Master of the World. She is preparing a volume on Argentine women playwrights of the twentieth century.

Translation of Alfonsina Storni’s Cimbelina En 1900 Y Pico / Cymbeline in 1900-and-Something and Polixena Y La Cocinerita / Polyxena and the Little Cook

2004 0-7734-6270-8
Alfonsina Storni was one of the leading feminist poets and playwrights in Latin America at the beginning of the twentieth century. Storni's poetry has been widely translated and has received various studies and criticism On the other hand, her theater has been mostly neglected until the present. The translation of Two Pyrotechnic Forces consisting of Cimbelina en 1900 y pico (Cvmbeline in 1900-and-something) and Polixena y la cocinerita (Polyxena and the Little Cook) gives scholars and students in the fields of Latin American literature, women's studies and world theater the opportunity to study rare examples of theater written by a woman on very controversial and progressive issues at the beginning of the twentieth century. Storni's farces are a striking example of experimental language to portray and criticize social and political realities. The plays also constitute an iconoclastic approach to the theatrical canon, since Polyxena and the Little Cook is based on Euripides' Hecuba and Cymbeline in the 1900-and-Something parodies the creation of another great name, William Shakespeare The translation is furnished with an introduction that reviews the whole theatrical production of Storni in relation to the historical and social developments of her time and places her work within the context of the literature and theater of Argentina and the Southern Cone. It emphasizes the role of Storni's plays in the foundation of a lineage of female playwrights on the Argentine stage.