The Question of Class in Contemporary Latin American Cinema [Paperback]

The Question of Class in Contemporary Latin American Cinema responds to the renewed interest in class within and outside academia by examining the aesthetics and politics of class in a representative selection of films from the contemporary cinemas of Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. It explores the relationship of cinematic practices to conflicting socio-political transformations taking place in these five countries such as the intensification of neoliberalism, the Turn-to-the-Left, and the growth of the middle classes in the period from 2003 to 2015. Utilizing a critical comparative method , it sheds a critical light on the presumed depoliticization (or new, aestheticized politicization) of contemporary Latin American cinema. The combined textual and industrial analyses of films from strikingly different cinemas and directors through the lenses of class allows for a contextualization of this trend and the observation of its limitations. Furthermore, this book distinguishes cinematic figurations that correspond to new conceptualizations of class introduced in social studies from figurations of class that have yet to be conceptualized.Mar?a Mercedes V?zquez V?zquez is lecturer and honorary assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong.

V?zquez V?zquez (Univ. of Hong Kong) employs close textual analysis of selected Latin American fiction feature films produced from 2003 to 2015 to study the dynamics of class relations in cinema in terms of both aesthetics and politics. In addition, she analyzes issues of class in extratextual areas such as governmental cultural policies, modes of production, national and transnational funding schemes, distribution, and reception. Taking a multinational approach, the author examines films from Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuelacountries characterized during this particular period by a major shift to the left of the political spectrum (the Turn-to-the-Left)and also films from Cuba and Mexico, where long-establilCR