Ilana Dann Luna
Published: 2018-01-01
Total Pages: 314
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Demonstrates how film adaptations intersect with feminist discourse in neoliberal Mexico. Adapting Gender offers a cogent introduction to Mexicos film industry, the history of womens filmmaking in Mexico, a new approach to adaptation as a potential feminist strategy, and a cultural history of generational changes in Mexico.Ilana Dann Luna examines how adapted films have the potential to subvert not only the intentions of the source text, but how they can also interrupt the hegemony of gender stereotypes in a broader socio-political context. Luna follows the industrial shifts that began with Salinas de Gortaris presidency, which made the long 1990s the precise moment in which subversive filmmakers, particularly women, were able to participate more fully in the industry and portrayed the lived experiences of women and non-gender-conforming men. The analysis focuses on Busi Cortéss El secreto de Romelia (1988), an adaptation of Rosario Castellanoss short novel El viudo Román (1964); Sabina Berman and Isabelle Tardáns Entre Pancho Villa y una mujer desnuda (1996), an adaptation of Bermans own play, Entre Villa y una mujer desnuda (1992); Guita Schyfters Novia que te vea (1993), an adaptation of Rosa Nissáns eponymous novel (1992); and Jaime Humberto Hermosillos De noche vienes, Esmeralda (1997), an adaptation of Elena Poniatowskas short story De noche vienes (1979). These adapted texts established a significant alternative to monolithic notions of national (gendered) identity, while critiquing, updating, and even queering, notions of feminism in the Mexican context. Adapting Gender demonstrates Lunas considerable skills as a scholar. She deftly carries out a careful analysis of the literary and cinematic texts, putting them in the context of the evolving publishing and film industries. Written in a lively and engaging style, this is a unique synthesis of the evolution of feminism and the roles women have hadindeed, at times, been limited toin Mexico and what this has meant for their creative output. Niamh Thornton, author of Revolution and Rebellion in Mexican Film