La identidad femenina extranjera en Zahra la favorita de Al-Ándalus de Antonia Bueno

Abstract

Among migrants in Spain, the female figure appears late in contemporary Spanish dramatic production. The article proposes to study how the figure of the migrant woman suffers a double marginalisation: the one linked to her condition as a foreigner and the one linked to her condition as a woman. In Zahra la favorita de Al-Ándalus, Antonia Bueno highlights two female figures who share the same name, Zahra, but belong to different times and spaces. One is an Andalusian woman in the 10th century, during the reign of Abderraman III, the other a Maghrebi woman in the 21st century. Like a palimpsest, the lives of the two women intertwine until they meet again across time and space in the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar. Both Zahras are subjected to male authority and struggle to survive. The article aims to highlight the progressive construction of the protagonists’ identities as they move from invisibility to rebellion.

Keywords

• Antonia Bueno
• Spanish theatre
• Migrant women
• rebellion
• identity