Cultural Dyslexia and the Politics of Cross-cultural Excursion in Claudia Llosa's Madeinusa
Claudia Llosa's controversial Madeinusa (2006) has inspired unprecedented debate in the Peruvian media and blogosphere. Despite being the most awarded film in the history of Peruvian cinematography, it was disparaged by local left-leaning critics and intelligentsia, who accused Llosa of perpetuating racist colonial stereotypes of primitive and perverted natives. This essay examines the highly politicized debate surrounding Madeinusa and re(views) the film within a postcolonial feminist framework. In this reading the murderous impulse of the young indigenous protagonist is seen not as a sign of an evil and abject native but as a radical act of self-realization.
Tiempo de fuga: Desterritorializaciones en Madeinusa de Claudia Llosa
Resumen:Madeinusa (2006), película escrita y dirigida por Claudia Llosa, presenta la celebración del Tiempo Santo en el pueblo de Manayaycuna. En el filme, el Tiempo Santo es una fiesta en la que todos los pecados están permitidos. Buena parte de la crítica ha señalado que Madeinusa es una distorsión de la cultura andina que reproduce estereotipos recurrentes del subalterno como salvaje, vicioso o atrasado. En este texto, ensayo un análisis alternativo y examino a la película como una obra heterogénea que despliega las tensiones y entrelazamientos entre su referente (el contexto rural andino), y las instancias que la producen (asociadas al contexto urbano de la costa). Propongo que dentro de la narración, la fiesta es el elemento que permite los entrecruzamientos y las contaminaciones entre los personajes de la sierra y la costa. Así, interpreto al Tiempo Santo como un carnaval que permite los contagios, las fugas y desterritorializaciones de los personajes del filme. Concluyo que dichas desterritorializaciones sirven para eludir el orden patriarcal y desestabilizar los límites de la identidad.
Analogy, Supposition, and Transcendentality in Narrative Argument
Rodden writes, “How do stories persuade us? How do they ‘move’—and move us? The short answer: by analogies.” Rodden’s claim is a natural first view, also held by others. This chapter considers the extent to which this view is true and helpful in understanding how fictional narratives, taken as wholes, may be argumentative, comparing it to the two principal (though not necessarily exclusive) alternatives that have been proposed: understanding fictional narratives as exhibiting the structure of suppositional argument, or the structure of a kind of transcendental argument. Three key aspects of understanding a fictional narrative as an argument from analogy are identified. First, the argument will be relativistic or depend in an essential way upon the circumstances or intentions of the auditor or author. Second, in view of the first aspect, the argument will be loose and subjective, and accordingly less likely to yield knowledge. Third, the argument will not exhibit a distinctive structure applicable only to fictional narratives. I find that the third, and sometimes the first and second, of these same three aspects apply to understanding fictional narratives as suppositional arguments. I present considerations that point to a way of establishing that some extended fictions exhibit the structure of a kind of transcendental argument that is neither relativistic nor subjective, is knowledge-generating, and is uniquely applicable to fictional narratives. This supports literary cognitivism—the thesis that “literary fiction can be a source of knowledge in a way that depends crucially on its being fictional.”