1st Edition

Latin American Writers and the Rise of Hollywood Cinema

By Jason Borge Copyright 2008
    222 Pages
    by Routledge

    222 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book analyzes the initial engagement with Hollywood by key Latin American writers and intellectuals during the first few decades of the 20th century. The film metropolis presented an ambiguous, multivalent sign for established figures like Horacio Quiroga, Alejo Carpentier and Mário de Andrade, as well as less renowned writers like the Mexican Carlos Noriega Hope, the Chilean Vera Zouroff and the Cuban Guillermo Villarronda. Hollywood’s arrival on the scene placed such writers in a bind, as many felt compelled to emulate the "artistry" of a medium dominated by a nation posing a symbolic affront to Latin American cultural and linguistic autonomy as well as the region’s geopolitical sovereignty. The film industry thus occupied a crucial site of conflict and reconciliation between aesthetics and politics.

    Acknowledgements

    Chapter One: The Lettered City of Angels

    Chapter Two: Ex Machina: Hollywood, Latin America and the Cinematic Imaginary

    Chapter Three: Celluloid Border: Mexican Revisions of Early Hollywood

    Chapter Four: Tropic of Chaplin: Latin American Intellectuals and the Little Tramp Chapter Five: Hollywood Chronicles: Latin American Journalism and the Early Talkies

    Chapter Six: Imperial Magic: Walt Disney in Latin America, 1930-1945

    Notes

    Bibliography

    Index

    Biography

    Jason Borge is currently an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Vanderbilt University, where he teaches courses on Latin American literature, cultural studies and film. His previous publications include Avances de Hollywood: crítica cinematográfica en Latinoamérica, 1915-1945 (Hollywood Advances: Latin American Film Criticism, 1915-1945), Beatriz Viterbo, 2005.