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Language
English (en)
Date of Award
3-13-2006
Author's Department
International and Area Studies
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Restricted/Unrestricted
Restricted
Abstract
The Argentine debt crisis of2001 dramatically altered the lives of millions of Argentine families and citizens. This event was the culmination of many local and external factors that had amassed over time and which finally exploded in 2001, provoking a default on Argentina's sovereign debt and "the largest event of mass impoverishment" in Argentine history.1 The visible effects of the debt crisis were many, as public protests, unemployment and looting ran rampant. The crisis' psycho-social effects were and are equally notable, though not always as overt. Sociologists Alberto Minujin and Guillermo Kessler have described some of these effects, emphasizing the uncertainty and loss of social identity that yielded from the crisis, mainly as a result of unemployment and socioeconomic instability.2 In this thesis, I will analyze representations of the debt crisis in contemporary Argentine film. In particular, I will examine ways in which directors from across cinematic movements discuss the loss of national and personal identity provoked by the crisis. My analysis shares an affinity with Maria Paulinelli's Poeticas en el cine argentino, which establishes film as a critical tool for examining the present and past in order to build a new discourse that will lead to the establishment of future identity. Paulinelli also articulates film's "privileged space" which synthesizes the individual and the group,3 thus linking individual narratives to broader experiences of nation and society. Furthermore, this "privileging" of film also operates on a spatial level, in that the theater-going experience is one that merges individuals-each of whom enjoys a personal interpretation of the spectacle-with the larger audience. In addition to being a readily accessible artform, film achieves the rare end of uniting a diverse group of citizens who then participate in a collective viewing experience. Such "democratic" tendencies in cinema establish it as prime ground for the study of individual and collective identities. Additionally, the economic aspects of film make it a unique implement for studying the effects of the debt crisis, both on individual and collective levels. That is, the debt crisis manifests itself in film not only on the level of plot, but also in more technical elements of production. Budget constraints, already a concern before the crisis, altered the types of stories that directors were able to tell-favoring the smaller-than-life, individual-based stories discussed hereafter-as well as the technology and mobility available to directors. Using the privileged space of cinema, I will consider how the question of identity plays out in contemporary films, and how directors' treatment of identity leads to the construction of a new subject.
Recommended Citation
Whitney, Christine, "New Film, New Subject Identity and the Debt Crisis in Argentine Film Since 2001" (2006). Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses. 121.
https://repository.library.washu.edu/undergrad_etd/121