Call for papers: Childhood and Youth in Latin American Cinema
SLAS Conference 2011
St Andrews 8-10 April
Please send abstracts by 7th January 2011 to [log in to unmask]
Despite an abundance of Latin American cinematic narratives centring around children and youth, the role of the child has received scant critical attention in Latin American cinema studies by comparison with other categories for analysis. What are the meanings of the child in this filmic production and to what representational uses is s/he put? Does Latin American reality in fact expose the myths of childhood upon which modern institutions (such as cinema) trade? What ethical concerns arise in the use of child or adolescent ?natural actors?? Does the child?s presence in film engender new ways of
seeing and experimentation with cinematic form? Children often figure in cultural production as locus of (national) memory or history, and by contrast also as symbol of the future. Conservative representational uses such as these co-exist with the frequent use of the child to highlight injustice or exploitation, though we may well ask whether child-as-symbol or child-as-allegory affords the child any agency. The panel will address areas such as the child in Latin American cinematic history (especially the explosion of
realist child-centred narratives in the 1990s and early 2000s), and explore conceptual paradigms for understanding the child in film and their applicability to Latin American production.
Confirmed speakers:
David Martin-Jones
Debbie Martin
For more information on the conference, please see
http://www.slas.org.uk/