Books by Ariel Dorfman
“It is about a Chilean woman, Paulina, who meets someone through her husband whose voice she recognises as her torturer…I would also say that the reason I selected it is because the play addresses the dilemma of what you do to the torturer and what the torture victim is entitled to when the nightmare of the torture-based regime is over and a state is trying to reorganise itself along democratic and more humane lines. I think the play shows very starkly that kind of dilemma that societies experience.” Read more...
Juan Mendez, Lawyer
The Empire's Old Clothes
by Ariel Dorfman
Ariel Dorfman is one of the leading literary figures in Latin America today. This book is a collection of early essays from the 1970s. They constitute one of the founding works in the study of cultural imperialism and hegemony. Through the prism of popular children’s literature, Dorfman shows how the assumptions of U.S. superiority, hegemony and benevolence are reproduced from one generation to the next.
“Dorfman is a well-known playwright. People will know about his play Death of the Maiden and he has written a lot of novels. And this is his autobiography. It is the story of a peripatetic intellectual — he wandered all over the place. He was born in Argentina and spent a long time in the United States. I think what he does extremely well is to give us an insider’s view of what is happening. But he also has the perspective of someone who is looking at it from the outside. He speaks and writes in English as well as he speaks and writes in Spanish. He was very involved in the cultural side of the Allende period. A lot of things happened in Chile during the Allende years and one of the impressive ones was the cultural innovations that were taking place in song, painting, theatre and in writing. What this book does is show you what it was like to be an intellectual at a time of great social turmoil. He is looking into where his roots are. It is a very personal as well as a very political book.” Read more...
The best books on Pinochet and Chilean Politics
Alan Angell, Political Scientist
Interviews where books by Ariel Dorfman were recommended
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1
The Pinochet Regime
by Carlos Huneeus -
2
Battling for Hearts and Minds: Memory Struggles in Pinochet’s Chile, 1973–1988
by Steve J Stern -
3
Fear in Chile: Lives Under Pinochet
by Patricia Politzer -
4
Heading South, Looking North: A Bilingual Journey
by Ariel Dorfman -
5
Victims of the Chilean Miracle: Workers And Neoliberalism In The Pinochet Era, 1973–2002
by Peter Winn
The best books on Pinochet and Chilean Politics, recommended by Alan Angell
The best books on Pinochet and Chilean Politics, recommended by Alan Angell
Marshalling one of the first ever televised coups, Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s legacy is fraught. While some apologists try to justify the dictatorship on economic grounds, his time in office saw innumerable human rights abuses. Alan Angell, Emeritus Fellow in Latin American Politics at the University of Oxford, considers the regime of “a very cruel man.”
The best books on U.S. Relations with Latin America, recommended by William LeoGrande
From the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 to the present day, the US has always been heavily involved in Latin America and viewed itself as the dominant power in the region. William LeoGrande, a Latin America specialist and professor of government at the American University, takes us through books on the history of the relationship, including a book that tells the story of Cuba and the US through the tale of one family, the Bacardi dynasty.
The best books on Torture, recommended by Juan Mendez
Can torture ever be justified? No, says the UN special rapporteur, who tells us how torturers try to excuse themselves and what remedies should be available to surviving victims
