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The Department of International Studies is proud to present the next edition of its Research Seminar Series. This installment will feature: Ana María Tomaino on the topic: "The impact of dictatorship in the representation of Uruguayan identity in contemporary film industry".
Details
Date: Friday 27th April 2012
Time: 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Location: Room 107, Level 1, Building W6A, Macquarie University
Speaker: Ana María Tomaino
Topic: "The impact of dictatorship in the representation of Uruguayan identity in contemporary film industry"
Description
Cinematographic productions are a reflection of national identity, and can be defined as “historical constructions, based on social processes as well as collective imagery”. According to Anderson, this imagery is not necessarily an expression or reflection of reality, but could be also based on individual experiences and opinions.
Despite the fact that Uruguay has been considered one of the most educated countries in South America and it was known as the “Switzerland of Latin America” at the beginning of the twentieth century, social conflicts and economical crisis led to a military regime during the 70s and 80s which has had an impact on the country´s identity models.
Once democracy was re-established, a new film industry emerged comprised mainly of documentary films explaining the years of repression and feature films exploring the concept of a newly emerging Uruguayan post-dictatorship identity. These films, unlike the cosmetic representation of reality that the documentaries during the dictatorship portrayed, presented a negative image of the country and its population.
These issues are clearly addressed in some of the most acclaimed contemporary movies, such as 25 Watts, Whisky, Decile a Mario que no vuelva, which will be analysed in my research project.
Ana María Tomaino has a BABEd and a MA in Applied Linguistics from UNSW and a PostGrad Cert in Research Preparation from Macquarie University. She has taught Spanish for over 15 years in several universities in Sydney (UNSW, Sydney University, Macquarie University, UTS). She has recently started a PhD in Latin American Studies in our Department that looks into the impact of dictatorship in the representation of Uruguayan identity in contemporary film industry. Other research interests include the use of technology, specifically voice tools, in language learning and student engagement.
‘A Latin American poet in colonial Asia: Tracing and memorialising Pablo Neruda’s sojourn in the Dutch East Indies (1930-32)’
Ian Campbell
This presentation is a section of a larger ongoing research project to map and analyse the literary and cultural ‘afterlife’ of Chilean Nobel Prize-winning poet, Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) in four different socio-cultural contexts – Chile, Indonesia, Australia and the United States.
In today’s presentation the researcher will set out some of the findings from his 2011 visit to Indonesia, following the traces, and where extant, the memorialisation, of Neruda’s sojourn in Batavia, now Jakarta, when the poet was stationed between 1930-32 as Chilean Consul.
Whilst Neruda’s public profile in Chile as a Communist in the troubled post-World War II period, as well as his international standing as a poet in Spanish, is well-known, newly published archival material from Chile sheds more light on his sojourn in colonial Asia, including his marriage in Batavia to a Dutch Indies woman, María Antonia Hagenaar, in December 1930.
The presentation will briefly outline some of the literary responses by contemporary Indonesian poets to Neruda’s poetry, and discuss the complexities in the Indonesian setting of the processes of ‘memorialisation’ of the life and times of this remarkable poet.
Ian Campbell is currently an Honorary Research Associate in Spanish/Latin American Studies within the Department of International Studies, Macquarie University. A former Australian public servant, he has also completed postgraduate research in Indonesian Studies, with a 2008 book, Contemporary Indonesian language poetry from West Java and other research publications.
For more information please contact: Estela Valverde (estela.valverde@mq.edu.au)
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