<i>Presenciar el pasado</i>: Witnessing the Spanish and Argentine Dictatorships through Film and Television

<p>This dissertation explores the ways in which recent (1999–2017) films and television series ask today’s spectators to witness the 20^th-century Spanish and Argentine dictatorships by analyzing these texts on both a narrative and technical level. I examine torture in the Argentine films<em> Garage Olimpo</em> (Marco Bechis, 1999), <em>Crónica de una fuga </em>(Andrés Caetano, 2006), and, from Spain, <em>La voz dormida</em> (Benito Zambrano, 2011). I also investigate the theme of disappearance as seen in two Spain-Argentina joint ventures, <em>Pasaje de vida</em> (Diego Corsini, 2015) and <em>Los pasos perdidos </em>(Manane Rodríguez, 2001), both of which portray how parental absence affects the children of the Argentine “disappeared” living in exile in Spain. I then assess how the relationship between sound and image appears as an unresolved tension in <em>El secreto de sus ojos</em> (Juan José Campanella, 2009) from Argentina and<em> La isla mínima </em>(Alberto Rodríguez, 2014) from Spain, as well as how these films appeal to spectators’ senses beyond vision and hearing. Finally, I determine how today’s viewers experience the past via current television dramas in the long-running Spanish series <em>Cuéntame cómo pasó</em> (Miguel Ángel Bernardeau, 2001–present) as well as in its Argentine adaptation (Patricia Moser and Gustavo Villamagna, 2017). I demonstrate how torture, disappearance, sensorial perception, and television correspond with four elements of spectatorship theory (masochism, suture, embodied spectatorship, and meta-witnessing) to provide a holistic viewing experience that appeals to mind and body, thereby overcoming the distancing effects of time and representation.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2019

Author dc:creator

• Jacobs, Kristina L.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Paul Julian Smith

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Isolina Ballesteros
• Silvia Dapía

• Film and Media Studies
• Latin American Languages and Societies
• Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3213

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-4229