PCA/ACA in Puebla, Mexico, October 18-20, 2001

Call for paper and panel proposals:  Charismatic Leaders as 
       Represented in the Arts:  Literature,  Film, etc.

Mario Vargas Llosa has said of his most recent novel, La fiesta del chivo:
“Not even democracy is immune from the stench of dictatorship because the
true tradition in government is despotism. Democracy is the exception.
Dictatorships are supported by the most destructive instincts. The only
thing that protects society against dictatorship is a democratic culture.”

How do novelists like Vargas Llosa and filmmakers ‘frame’ the dictator so as
to expose the “true tradition of government [which] is despotism” at the
same time as they undermine it in the quest to create a “democratic culture”
?  However, given Vargas Llosa’s statement, no writer or filmmaker,
apparently, could ever rid his/her work of that stench, and the promotion of
democracy seems, in the end, to lead to the dark return of despotism.   This
proposal asks participants to demonstrate how novels/films which were
created to heal, distance, process, condemn dictatorship, cannot escape the
stench of dictatorship, cannot escape promoting dictatorship in spite of
themselves.

Papers and panel proposals are invited which address this issue and other
issues raised by Latin American novelists and filmmakers who take as their
topics the person of the dictator.

More information on the meeting, the site, registration, tours, transportation
can be found on the meeting's web site:

       www.udlap.mx/congress


Send proposals to:

Joanne Gass
California State University, Fullerton
[log in to unmask]

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Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite