Pink Tides: Femininity, Dictatorship, and the Rise of the New Latin American Left

Abstract

During the second half of the twentieth century, military dictatorships came to power throughout Southern Cone Latin America and contributed to the continued patriarchal tradition of the region. A literary and art movement arose after these dictatorships fell, centered on the patterns of re-victimization of the feminine and criticism of the atrocities carried out by the dictatorships. In my honors thesis, I argue that along with the rise of the marea rosada, the New Left in Latin America, we have witnessed a turn in post-dictatorship literature towards a criticism of the society that fostered the dictatorships and that continued the patriarchal traditions of the region. I also argue that the authors and directors of these texts and films advocate that in order to change the patriarchal pattern of society, it is necessary to participate within that society and manipulate the society's discourses to one's own advantage.