Abstract:

Abstract The Spanish artist Angélica Liddell is one of the most controversial creators of the international theater circuit, specially since her play The Scarlet Letter (2018) was understood as an attack on the feminist movement Me too and the neopuritanism it carried. This play offers a stark contrast with some previous Liddell’s texts that are clearly aligned with a feminist world view, such as La casa de la fuerza (2009). How did a swerve like this happen? In this paper I would aim to explain it as related to a change in Liddell’s conception of the purpose of the art and as a response to the rise of the fourth wave of feminism. The adoption of a misogynistic rhetoric by the artist is contemporary with the abandon of her previous trust in the power of an openly political theater, whose place is now occupied by a faith in the art as an approach to the irrational and dark materials of the human soul. This change implies a deeply individualistic approach to the art, opposite to the claims of feminism, and favors the contempt of the puritan feminist and the defenders of the cancel culture.

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