This book analyzes the initial engagement with Hollywood by key Latin American writers and intellectuals during the first few decades of the 20th century. The film metropolis presented an ambiguous, multivalent sign for established figures like Horacio Quiroga, Alejo Carpentier and Mário de Andrade, as well as less renowned writers like the Mexican Carlos Noriega Hope, the Chilean Vera Zouroff and the Cuban Guillermo Villarronda. Hollywood’s arrival on the scene placed such writers in a bind, as many felt compelled to emulate the "artistry" of a medium dominated by a nation posing a symbolic affront to Latin American cultural and linguistic autonomy as well as the region’s geopolitical sovereignty. The film industry thus occupied a crucial site of conflict and reconciliation between aesthetics and politics.
Acknowledgements
Chapter One: The Lettered City of Angels
Chapter Two: Ex Machina: Hollywood, Latin America and the Cinematic Imaginary
Chapter Three: Celluloid Border: Mexican Revisions of Early Hollywood
Chapter Four: Tropic of Chaplin: Latin American Intellectuals and the Little Tramp Chapter Five: Hollywood Chronicles: Latin American Journalism and the Early Talkies
Chapter Six: Imperial Magic: Walt Disney in Latin America, 1930-1945
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Jason Borge is currently an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Vanderbilt University, where he teaches courses on Latin American literature, cultural studies and film. His previous publications include Avances de Hollywood: crítica cinematográfica en Latinoamérica, 1915-1945 (Hollywood Advances: Latin American Film Criticism, 1915-1945), Beatriz Viterbo, 2005.