Luis Maldonado 15/10/08
Dr Luis Maldonado
Assistant Professor
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, Texas
Fidel Castro and the Mediatic Politics of the Body
6.30pm
Wednesday 15 October, 2008
Henry Thomas Room
Tower Building
London Metropolitan University,
30 people attended this presentation which focused on the conflicting narratives articulated in the visual production of Fidel Castro’s body in the media.
Considering his body image as a mass-media product designed to be editorialized - whether to idealize it or demonize it -, Dr Maldonado observed how both character assassination and cult image are two different rhetorical masks that feed on Fidel’s mediatic body with the same frenzy.
Through the use of various image and photographic theories he explored the construction of Castro’s corporeal identity, from his epic past to recent visuals depicting him as an aging, sick, and falling "Comandante". By means of an analytical dissection of his body as the site of both individual and political crisis, he demonstrated how the depiction of his anatomy transcends the merely physiological to become a battleground where the destiny of Cuba is, and has been debated.
Dr Luis Maldonado is assistant professor of Latin American literature and culture at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He has written extensively on Latin American literature and topics related to representations of the body. This presentation is part of the manuscript for his book in progress entitled: The Rhetoric of the Wound: Critical Anatomies of Power in Latin American Literature and Politics.
This event was recorded and a DVD is available. To obtain a copy please send a cheque for £5.00p made payable to 'London Metropolitan University', a return address and a note saying that you want the film of this event to the following address:
IISC
London Metropolitan University
31 Jewry St.,
London
EC3 2NY
