Memories of Modernity
An International Conference on Hispanic Cinemas, November 10-11, 2006
Stony Brook Manhattan, Park Ave and 28th St., New York, NY
Call for Papers
The struggle for modernity has been one of the constant back stories of Spanish,
Latin American and U. S. Latino cinema. The distinction of "peripheral modernity"
(Beatriz Sarlo) suggests a Latin American regional conception of modernity which
places the Hispanic experience in a distinct category. Commentators of Spanish
and Latin American cinemas (Román Gubern, Carlos Monsiváis, Paulo Antonio Paranaguá,
among others) have long noted how the cinematic institution is itself emblematic
of the international modernizing process against which the ideology of traditionalist
patriarchal culture is made visible. Historically, movie theaters were first
located in urban centers and so, even as late as the 1930s and 1940s, the cinematic
glorification of rural culture in Hispanic films was almost always by way of
nostalgic evocations of a world being erased in part by the mass media.
The idea of modernity as cinematic form, a substance, even a place, has gone
from a borrowed idea that was used to align Hispanic communities and cultures
with the industrial world to the more recent recognition of the globalizing
project within which the Hispanic ethnosphere is itself part of a global network
of cultural exchanges. The only constant in this rearrangement is the axiomatic
principle that modernity as a struggle continues to narrate the multiple facets
of the Hispanic community on screen.
The theme of this conference will be the diverse expressions and conceptualizations
of modernity in Hispanic cinemas. Some potential areas of exploration include:
ˇThe urban-rural tension and modernity
ˇThe city (New York, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Madrid) as the site of Hispanic cinematic modernity
ˇOtherness and modernity
ˇModernization of cinematic practices (sound, color)
ˇGender, class and modernity
ˇNational cinema and international/global cinema: tradition vs. modernity
ˇThe politics of authorial modernity (Buńuel; Almodóvar, Ripstein; etc)
ˇModernity as utopia/ dystopia
Papers for presentation should be 20-25 minutes long and may be considered
for publication in Studies in Hispanic Cinemas. Those wishing to present papers
(in English or Spanish) should send title and a 250 word abstract by May 31,
2006 to the addresses listed below:
Kathleen Vernon, Dept. of Hispanic Languages and Literature, SUNY Stony Brook,
Stony Brook, NY 11794-3371 USA Email: kvernon@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
Marvin D'Lugo, Dept. of Foreign Languages and Literature, Clark University,
Worcester, MA 01610-1477 USA Email: mdlugo@clarku.edu
Mark Allinson, School of Modern Languages, University of Leicester, Leicester
LE1 7RH UK Email: mark.allinson@le.ac.uk
To Memories of Modernity Conference Program
To Dept. of Hispanic Languages and Literature Homepage