World Languages and Cultures Publications World Languages and Cultures 2013 Staging the Nation: Claro M. Recto’s Domestic Dramas Eugenio Matibag Iowa State University,
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[email protected]. Staging the Nation: Claro M. Recto’s Domestic Dramas Abstract Near the beginning of a prolific nda productive career as a writer and statesman, Claro M. Recto (1890-1960) authored two prize-winning dramas that were performed at the Manila Grand Opera House. Each of the plays—La ruta de Damasco (1913) and Solo entre las sombras (1917)—is a drama that represents the interactions of an ilustrado family in its relationship to the imposition of cultural practices and power structures under American rule. This essay proposes that in these dramas written by an ilustrado and performed for an interpellated ilustrado audience, the ilustrado home stands as a metonym of the nation, its family a synecdoche of the national community.