«¿Qué es ser una mujer?» : histeria y posmodernidad en A streetcar named desire

Frente al planteamiento de genero, dicotomico e invariable, basado en la tradicion humanista y destacado por gran parte de la critica teatral y literaria como algo esencial a la hora de analizar A Streetcar Named Desire, mi intencion es demostrar que la obra, de manera compleja y sutil, rompe esta dicotomia por medio de la figura de Blanche, la histerica que desestabiliza el sistema de sexo/genero normativo preestablecido por la sociedad patriarcal. En esta linea, la ya mitica representacion realizada por el grupo teatral norteamericano Split Britches en 1991, basada en una relectura libre de esta obra, dinamita otras lecturas anteriores al utilizar la homosexualidad, una hiperfeminidad travestida y el juego de roles queer como clave de interpretacion. Tanto Split Britches, con su version transgenero, como la Blanche mas ortodoxamente presentada por Tennessee Williams plantean la eterna pregunta que segun Jacques Lacan lanza abierta o subliminalmente toda mujer con una estructura psiquica histerica: “Que es una mujer?, ?que significa serlo?, ?cual es su deseo?”. Many critics have tended to assume the traditionally humanist understanding of gender as rigid and binary when analysing A Street Car Named Desire. It is the purpose of this essay to demonstrate that this play breaks up this dichotomy in a subtle and complex way through the figure of Blanche, the hysteric able to destabilise the sex/gender system as established by patriarchal society. In this vein, the already mythical performance of this play by the American theatre group Split Britches, undermines former readings by using homosexuality, cross-dressed hyperfemininity and queer role-playing as keys for interpretation. Both the original (more orthodox) Blanche as portrayed by Tennessee Williams and the Split Britches re-reading of this play present the enduring questions posed time and again by women with a hysterical psychic structure: “What is a woman?, What does it mean? What is her desire?”