Chilean Art and Literature During the Dictatorship

Undergraduate / Graduate

On September 11, 1973, a US-backed military coup in Chile brought down the government of Salvador Allender, the first democratically elected Marxist president in Latin America. The military dictatorship that governed over the course of the following two decades brought about radical transformation to the macro- and micropolitical dynamics of Chile. This course is a survey of the art and literature produced during the years of dictatorship. We study the work of some of the most consequential literary and artistic figures active during the years of the dictatorship. The unprecedented level of experimentation in the arts and literature of this period will be studied vis-a-vis the radically shifted social and affective coordinates faced by those living in Chile during the dictatorship. Works by Catalina Parra, Diamela Eltit, Lotty Rosenfeld, Nelly Richard, Adriana Valdés, José Donoso, Raúl Zurita, and others.