FIGURAS FANTASMAGÓRICAS EN EL CINE LATINOAMERICANOudDEL SIGLO XXI: TRAUMA Y HUELLAS DE CRISIS EN ELudIMAGINARIO DE LA CIUDAD CONTEMPORÁNEA

摘要

PHANTASMAGORIC IMAGINATION IN XXI-CENTURY LATIN AMERICANudCINEMA: FIGURES OF TRAUMA AND CRISIS IN THE CONTEMPORARY CITYudCarolina Rueda, PhDudUniversity of Pittsburgh, 2012udMy dissertation is dedicated to an innovative theme that is underrepresented in Latin American cultural studies and beyond: Phantasmagoric Imagination in Post-2000 Latin American Cinema. I have chosen a heterogeneous group of films from Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, and Peru, all of them produced after two thousand. While speaking of the insertion of Latin American film productions in today's global culture market, these films reflectudon particular socio-psychological, economic and political phenomena that have been emerging from the megacities of the Global South. The accent is placed on the urban/metropolitan setting and its function in the production of significations. Within this setting, my project focuses on everyday life turned into situations of conflict, unprecedented forms of alienation, and a shocking variety of experiences of crisis, as well as survival. Trauma imprinted in the body, the idea of besieged cities, scenarios of informal economy, issues associated with diaspora, and science fiction and post-catastrophe cinema are the subjects discussed in the six chapters of this dissertation.udWalter Benjamin's “Phantasmagoria” is the central theoretical concept used to examine patterns of affective and psychological processes that remain hidden in the historical individual and collective unconscious. These patterns can be identified by observing people's behavior, and by reflecting upon the materiality of the surfaces that the film images provide. I place the accentudon the global aspect as well as on the unconscious, considering the “invisible hand” of advanced globalization and its effects on life and imaginaries in the megacities of the Global South today.udMore specific issues associated with Latin America and the urban space in the new millennium are discussed in dialogue with Mike Davis’ writings on globalization, the theoretical studies of Latin American culture provided by Angel Rama in The Lettered City, Hermann Herlinghaus’ concept of “affective marginalization,” and Aníbal Quijano’s post-colonial approach to Latin American culture, among others.