Afterlives of confinement : spatial transitions in postdictatorship Latin America / Susana Draper.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Draper, Susana, author.

Series:

Illuminations (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

Illuminations : Cultural Formations of the Americas

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Prisons--Remodeling for other use--Southern Cone of South America.

Prisons.

Dictatorship--Social aspects--Southern Cone of South America.

Dictatorship.

Democracy--Social aspects--Southern Cone of South America.

Democracy.

Consumption (Economics)--Social aspects--Southern Cone of South America.

Consumption (Economics).

Architecture and society--Southern Cone of South America.

Architecture and society.

Motion pictures--Social aspects--Southern Cone of South America.

Motion pictures.

Prisons in literature.

Spanish American literature--Southern Cone of South America--History and criticism.

Spanish American literature.

Southern Cone of South America--Intellectual life.

Southern Cone of South America.

Southern Cone of South America--Social conditions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (249 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania : University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

During the age of dictatorships, Latin American prisons became a symbol for the vanquishing of political opponents, many of whom were never seen again. In the postdictatorship era of the 1990s, a number of these prisons were repurposed into shopping malls, museums, and memorials. Susana Draper uses the phenomenon of the "opening" of prisons and detention centers to begin a dialog on conceptualizations of democracy and freedom in post-dictatorship Latin America. Focusing on the Southern Cone nations of Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina, Draper examines key works in architecture, film, and literature to peel away the veiled continuity of dictatorial power structures in ensuing consumer cultures. The afterlife of prisons became an important tool in the "forgetting" of past politics, while also serving as a reminder to citizens of the liberties they now enjoyed. In Draper's analysis, these symbols led the populace to believe they had attained freedom, although they had only witnessed the veneer of democracy-in the ability to vote and consume. In selected literary works by Roberto Bola-o, Eleuterio Fernandez Huidoboro, and Diamela Eltit and films by Alejandro Agresti and Marco Bechis, Draper finds further evidence of the emptiness and melancholy of underachieved goals in the afterlife of dictatorships. The social changes that did not occur, the inability to effectively mourn the losses of a now-hidden past, the homogenizing effects of market economies, and a yearning for the promises of true freedom are thematic currents underlying much of these texts.Draper's study of the manipulation of culture and consumerism under the guise of democracy will have powerful implications not only for Latin Americanists but also for those studying neoliberal transformations globally.

Contents:

Introduction: The Afterlife of Prisons

Prison-Malls : Architectures of Utopic Regeneration

Literary Afterlives of the Punta Carretas Prison : Tunneling Histories of Freedom

The Workforce and the Open Prison : Awakening from the Dream of the Chilean Miracle in Diamela Eltit's Mano de obra

Freedom, Democracy, and the Literary Uncanny in Roberto Bolano's Nocturno de Chile

Memorialistic Architectonics and Memory Marketing

It Goes without Seeing : Framing the Future Past of Violence in Postdictatorhip Film.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780822978060

0822978067

OCLC:

830023634