Recent Comparative Studies Program Graduate, Carmen Duarte, Receives Florida Book Award

Duarte’s book is about the dramaturgy written by Cuban American, Puerto Rican and Dominican American women in the United States. These theater plays propel Hispanic-Caribbean theater culture beyond the geographical borders of their islands, thus creating transnational cultural enclaves that nurture themselves, and also transform the cultural theatrical environment of the United States. This dramaturgy, with its themes and arguments, put into practice the feminist and LGBTQ critical theories that focus on minority groups in U.S. society. Through an analysis of the Hispanic Caribbean theater traditions from their origins to the transformations they suffer in the U.S. because of the various Caribbean diasporas; essential characteristics of this drama written by women creates a new theater characterized by its hybrid roots. This dramatic cultural transformation is based on the diversity and inclusion of ethnic, racial, and sexual identities. Duarte received her Ph.D. and master’s degree in Spanish and Literature from FAU, and received a bachelor´s degree in Fine Arts with a major in theatre arts in her native Cuba, where she was a theater director, as well as playwright. She has two internationally performed plays and six published books. She also has years of experience in television news writing and production, and has worked as a radio producer, talk show host, and journalist.