Masculine/Feminine

Richard Nelly Richard, Nelson Alice A. Nelson, Tandeciarz Silvia R. Tandeciarz

Description

Nelly Richard is one of the most prominent cultural theorists writing in Latin America today. As a participant in Chile's neo-avantgarde, Richard worked to expand the possibilities for cultural debate within the constraints imposed by the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990), and she has continued to offer incisive commentary about the country's transition to democracy. Well known as the founder and director of the influential Santiago-based journal Revista de critica cultural, Richard has been central to the dissemination throughout Latin America of work by key contemporary thinkers, including Nestor Garcia Canclini, Jacques Derrida, Fredric Jameson, and Diamela Eltit. Her own writing provides rigorous considerations of Latin American identity, postmodernism, gender, neoliberalism, and strategies of political and cultural resistance.Richard helped to organize the 1987 International Conference on Latin American Women's Literature in Santiago, one of the most significant literary events to take place under the Pinochet dictatorship. Published in Chile in 1993, Masculine/Feminine develops some of the key issues brought to the fore during that landmark meeting. Richard theorizes why the feminist movement has been crucial not only to the liberation of women but also to understanding the ways in which power operated under the military regime in Chile. In one of her most widely praised essays, she explores the figure of the transvestite, artistic imagery of which exploded during the Chilean dictatorship. She examines the politics and the aesthetics of this phenomenon, particularly against the background of prostitution and shantytown poverty, and she argues that gay culture works to break down the social demarcations and rigid structures of city life. Masculine/Feminine makes available, for the first time in English, one of Latin America's most significant works of feminist theory.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Cultural studies
• Chile
• Chili

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 28 avril 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• EAN13: 9780822385714
• Langue: English

Extrait

Masculine/Feminine

- 

Series Editors: Stanley Fish and Fredric Jameson

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   /

 / 

Masculine/Feminine

Practices of Difference(s)

 

Silvia R. Tandeciarz and Alice A. Nelson, Translators

   Durham & London 

©  Duke University Press

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of

America on acid-free paper 

Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan

Typeset in Quadraat by Tseng

Information Systems, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-

Publication Data appear on the last

printed page of this book.











Contents

Translators’ Acknowledgments vii

Translators’ Preface ix

Note on This Translation xiii

Spatial Politics: Cultural Criticism and Feminist Theory 

Does Writing Have a Gender? 

Politics and Aesthetics of the Sign 

Gender Contortions and Sexual Doubling: Transvestite Parody 

Feminism and Postmodernism 

Notes 

Bibliography 

Index 

Translators’ Acknowledgments

We relied on the expertise of many individuals in the completion of this translation, and to them we would like to extend our sin- cere gratitude. Kathleen Ross, John French, Juan Poblete, Alberto Moreiras, Greg Mullins, Patrick Hub, and Pablo Yáñez all offered valuable feedback and encouragement at critical points in the pro- cess. The superb editorial work of J. Reynolds Smith, Sharon P. Torian, Kate Lothman, and Leigh Anne Couch strengthened the man- uscript, and their patience through several unfortunate delays helped us bring the project to fruition. Our home institutions, the College of William and Mary and the Evergreen State College, gave us crucial research support and facilities to complete the project. And with- out the support of our families—Pablo, Ximena, Cristóbal, Patrick— none of this would have been possible. Finally, we are grateful for the trust Nelly Richard placed in us; we hope our rendering of her work into English will help us convey our deepest appreciation.

Translators’ Preface

Nelly Richard figures among the most prominent cultural critics writing in Latin America today. As part of the Chilean neo–avant- garde that emerged during the Pinochet dictatorship (–), Richard worked to expand and deepen the possibilities for cultural debate within that constrained context and has continued to offer in- cisive cultural commentary about the country’s transition to democ- racy. Richard’s rigorous essays and books engage questions of Latin American identity within the context of North/South debates on postmodernism and neoliberalism, with a strong emphasis on gen- der analysis and micropolitical strategies of resistance. Well known as the founder and director of the influentialRevista de crítica cul- tural(Santiago, Chile), Richard has been central to the dissemina- tion throughout Latin America of work by key contemporary think- ers, including Beatriz Sarlo, Néstor García Canclini, Jacques Derrida, Ernesto Laclau, Fredric Jameson, Jesús Martín Barbero, and Dia- mela Eltit. Like Richard’s own essays, theRevistahas put into dia- logue theoretical perspectives from Latin America, Europe, and the United States, creating a lively forum for intellectual debate on cul- 1 ture, theory, and politics since its founding in . Born in France, Richard completed her degree in literature at the Sorbonne and moved to Chile in , a year characterized by the eu- phoric victory of Unidad Popular (Popular Unity) under the lead- ership of the democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende. During the Popular Unity period, Richard served as coordi-