ABSTRACT
Coloniality is a key factor in approaching the concept of the absurd in Caribbean literature. This essay focuses on a sample of texts from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean that tackle the experience and repercussions of coloniality through the lens of the absurd. This study, thus, illustrates how these works enact both a form of response and resistance. To provide an overview, three core sections anchor the analysis: (1) one on the Dominican Republic and Licelotte Nin’s play, Un pedazo de muñeca de Lilli Jolie, (2) one on Puerto Rico and Luis Rafael Sánchez’s La farsa del amor compradito and Myrna Cuevas’s Voces, and (3) one on Cuba and Virgilio Piñera’s play Jesús. While all three sections are anchored in absurdist theatrical pieces, in tune with the fluidity of the Caribbean, each one is threaded to each other by referencing other authors and expressions of the absurd in other genres. Among these authors we find: Ana Lydia Vega, Rebeca Castellanos, Rita Indiana, and Cristina García. As examples of response and resistance to colonialist sociocultural structures, the sample analyzed seeks to serve as a springboard into continued dialogues about the absurd not only in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean but also in the broader region.
