Adapting Gender

Ilana Dann Luna

Description

Adapting Gender offers a cogent introduction to Mexico's film industry, the history of women's filmmaking in Mexico, a new approach to adaptation as a potential feminist strategy, and a cultural history of generational changes in Mexico. Ilana Dann Luna examines how adapted films have the potential to subvert not only the intentions of the source text, but how they can also interrupt the hegemony of gender stereotypes in a broader socio-political context. Luna follows the industrial shifts that began with Salinas de Gortari's presidency, which made the long 1990s the precise moment in which subversive filmmakers, particularly women, were able to participate more fully in the industry and portrayed the lived experiences of women and non-gender-conforming men. The analysis focuses on Busi Cortés's El secreto de Romelia (1988), an adaptation of Rosario Castellanos's short novel El viudo Román (1964); Sabina Berman and Isabelle Tardán's Entre Pancho Villa y una mujer desnuda (1996), an adaptation of Berman's own play, Entre Villa y una mujer desnuda (1992); Guita Schyfter's Novia que te vea (1993), an adaptation of Rosa Nissán's eponymous novel (1992); and Jaime Humberto Hermosillo's De noche vienes, Esmeralda (1997), an adaptation of Elena Poniatowska's short story "De noche vienes" (1979). These adapted texts established a significant alternative to monolithic notions of national (gendered) identity, while critiquing, updating, and even queering, notions of feminism in the Mexican context.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Adapting Gender: An Introduction

1. Mexican Feminisms from Literature to Film

2. Rebellious Daughters in El secreto de Romelia

3. Revolutionary Variations Entre (Pancho) Villa y una mujer desnuda

4. Wedding the “Other” in Novia que te vea

5. Sexual Tensions: Queering Feminism in De noche vienes, Esmeralda

Collusions and Conclusions

Appendix Filmography of Mexican Films with LGBTQ Content
Notes
Works Cited
Index

Sujets

• Latin American
• Película fotográfica
• Visual culture
• Latin America
• History of film
• Caribbean
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 22 janvier 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438468280
• Langue: English

Extrait

ADAPTING GENDER
SUNY series in Latin American Cinema

Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado and Leslie L. Marsh, editors
ADAPTING GENDER
Mexican Feminisms from Literature to Film
ILANA DANN LUNA
Cover image courtesy Guita Schyfter
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2018 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Diane Ganeles
Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Luna, Ilana Dann, 1978– author.
Title: Adapting gender : Mexican feminisms from literature to film / Ilana Dann Luna.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2018] | Series: SUNY series in Latin American cinema | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Includes filmography.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017008958 (print) | LCCN 2017027073 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438468280 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438468273 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Women in motion pictures. | Motion pictures—Mexico—History—20th century. | Film adaptations—Mexico—History and criticism. | Feminism and motion pictures. | Sex role in motion pictures.
Classification: LCC PN1995.9.W6 (ebook) | LCC PN1995.9.W6 L86 2018 (print) | DDC 791.43/6522—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017008958
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my mother,
without whom none of this would be possible
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Adapting Gender: An Introduction Chapter 1 Mexican Feminisms from Literature to Film Chapter 2 Rebellious Daughters in El secreto de Romelia Chapter 3 Revolutionary Variations Entre (Pancho) Villa y una mujer desnuda Chapter 4 Wedding the “Other” in Novia que te vea Chapter 5 Sexual Tensions: Queering Feminism in De noche vienes, Esmeralda Collusions and Conclusions Appendix Filmography of Mexican Films with LGBTQ Content
Notes
Works Cited
Index
Illustrations Figure 2.1 Román fills up the visual field, showing the bedroom as a scene of implicit violence and fear. Courtesy of Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica. Figure 2.2 Romelia walks hand in hand with her granddaughter, Romi, a reconciliation between generations of women. Courtesy of Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica. Figure 3.1 Adrián and his psychic double, Pancho Villa, enact a fantasy of violence. Figure 4.1 Oshi’s photos of her immigrant family upon arrival in Mexico. Courtesy of Guita Schyfter. Figure 4.2 Rifke engages in social protest, defying family expectations and embodying the changing roles of women as political actors. Courtesy of Guita Schyfter. Figure 4.3 The Jewish struggle for a homeland is connected to the leftist struggles of Latin America. Courtesy of Guita Schyfter. Figure 5.1 A shackled and smiling Esmeralda defies normative heterosexual marriage, attempting to marry her 6th husband. Figure 5.2 Esmeralda is fêted by the crowd. Her “struggle” is adopted by feminists and AIDS activists alike. Figure C.1 Romantic love between men on screen in Julián Hernández’s El cielo dividido . Courtesy of Mil Nubes Cine. Figure C.2 Questioning compulsory heterosexuality in Julián Hernández’s Rabioso sol, rabioso cielo . Courtesy of Mil Nubes Cine.
Acknowledgments
As with any project of this scope and nature, it could not have been done alone. I am deeply indebted to many people, not the least of whom are those who have struggled and continue to struggle for equity and parity in representation, politics, and culture in the United States, Mexico, and the world over. The personal is still political. I dedicate this book to the memory of Tim McGovern, Claudia Parodi, and Elena Urrutia.
I am greatly indebted to Margo Glantz, Myriam Moscona, Rosa Nissán, and Guita Schyfter, who welcomed me into their homes and engaged with my research and (im)pertinent questions, and I thank the National Women’s Studies Association Jewish Women’s Caucus for the grant that supported that portion of my dissertation research. Thank you to Busi Cortés, who shared her image archives with me, and to Tzutzumatzin Soto Cortés at the Cineteca Nacional for her aid with images. I thank Arizona State University’s Institute for Humanities Research (IHR) as well as the Center for Critical Inquiry and Cultural Studies (CCICS) for their financial support of this publication.
I thank my graduate department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California, Santa Barbara for material support and for nourishing my intellectual curiosity and professional growth, especially Leo Cabranes-Grant, Juan Pablo Lupi, Jill Levine, Francisco Lomelí, and Jorge Luis Castillo. Thanks, too, to friends and interlocutors: Marzia Milazzo, Bekki Siemens, Ana Requena, Haley O’Neil, Chris McAuley, Dorota Dutsch, Francis Dunn, Noah Zweig, Rahul Muhkerjee, Cesar Bowley Castillo, David Seubert, Paolo Gardinali, Eddie Mendoza, and the Wachinangos: Tomás Andrade, Jorge González, Miguel Becerra, and Curtis Asplund, your music lives in me, even after all these years. I would also like to thank my colleagues at Arizona State University, whose collegiality, support, and encouragement have been invaluable and whose reading and engagement with my scholarship have helped shape this work, especially Annika Mann, Michael Stancliff, Shari Collins, Sharon Kirsch, Jessica Salerno, Gloria Cuadraz, Jake Meders, Claudia Villegas-Silva, Patricia Clark, Karla Murphy, Breanne Fahs, Julia Sarreal, Marianne Kim, Patrick Bixby, Matt Simonton, Ramsey Eric Ramsey, Teresa Devine, Patricia Friedrich, Alejandra Elenes, Bertha Manninen, Barry Moon, Jeffrey Kennedy, Charles St. Clair, Duku Anokye, Louis Mendoza, Julie Murphy Erfani, Majia Nadsen, and Marlene Tromp; librarians Dennis Isbell and Ashley Gohr, who always made research a breeze, and the staff: Tracy Encizo, Lucy Berchini, Marla Carmona, and Mary Bauer, for their unwavering support. I am grateful to Mary Dudy and Rebeca Siegel for their encouragement and expertise, to Chelsea Nesbit for her motivational talks, and to Nic De La Fuente and Masavi Perea for their activism and solidarity.
To my far-flung Mexicanista community, whose scholarship and readership have been immensely nourishing intellectually, special thanks to Ignacio Sánchez Prado, Norma Klahn, Niamh Thornton, Oswaldo Estrada, Cristina Carrasco, Sergio de la Mora, Alicia Rueda Acedo, Ignacio Ruiz Pérez, Sarah Pollack, Jacobo Sefamí, Pedro Angel Palou, Sandra Lorenzano, Tamara Williams, Cristina Rivera Garza, Laura Gutiérrez, Jacky Avila, Santiago Vaquera-Vásquez, Joserra Ruisanchez, Miriam Haddu, Anna Nogar, Amber Workman, Brian Price, Nora Marisa León-Real Méndez, Amelia León Schroeder, Oswaldo Zavala, Marcela Beltrán, Irma Cantú, Eloísa Alcocer, María Inés Canto Carillo, Claudia López, Fabiola Higareda, and Oswaldo Mejía. And especially to Elissa Rashkin for sharing her immense knowledge on the topic. To Kirsten Thompson and Kirsten Sanft, you are two of the best friends a girl could have, and your loving support and sisterhood have seen me through the most arduous parts of this journey. And to those who sustain me daily, my lady locusts: Cheyla Samuelson, Sara Potter, Rebecca Janzen, Amanda Petersen, and Emily Hind, without you my days would have far less cackling, and less critical engagement, too. To the entre nosOtr@s collective, thank you for comadrazgo, work dates, hikes, creative endeavors, dancing and potluck meetings, feminism in the borderlands, and imagining another world together: Marivel Danielson, Ana Terminel Iberri, Michelle Tellez, Yessica del Rincón, Vanessa Nielsen de Molina, Montye Fuse, and Theresa Avila, you lift me up.
And finally, concretely, I wish to thank my parents, Rosemary and Robert Dann, my biggest supporters, who have carried me on their shoulders throughout my life and career, and who drop everything for last-minute editing and advice. I can’t promise there will never be last-minute emergency document review, but I sure am grateful you are there to do it with a smile. Thank you to Isabella, the best daughter, true friend, and movie-watching accomplice a mother could ever wish for. You make me a better person and a better scholar, and your fierceness and sharp eye have helped me in ways too numerous to count. You are the reason I do the work I do, and to my brother, Ari Dann, who keeps me on my toes and with my mind open. To Carlos Vargas, I am so grateful for your sharp insights, critical spirit, your sense of humor, and point of view; and for how you have cheered me on when I thought I couldn’t move forward and had my back during the final stages of this process. And, most especially, deepest gratitude to Sara Poot-Herrera, for whose expertise, friendship, mentorship, and generosity I will be eternally indebted, and to Cristina Venegas, whose expansive knowledge of film and media studies and whose unwavering friendship and support have been my guide and my model for how to be a scholar and how to be in the world.
Adapting Gender: An Introduction
When I began this project in 2007, I was interested in looking at th