Visiting Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies Luisa Briones-Manzano organized a panel and presented a paper at the 48th Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA). The meeting took place in Baltimore March 23 to 26.
The panel on “Spanish Historical Memory: Queering the Dictatorship” explored voices silenced during the civil war, dictatorship and democracy because of a lack of an historical memory law and gender research about these historical periods.
Briones-Manzano explained that “Spain had no historical memory law until 2007 and the dictatorship ended in 1975. In addition, the few efforts to recover this memory are focused on dominant male figures.”
As chair of the panel, Briones-Manzano presented “El grupo anarquista Mujeres Libres en el cine,” arguing the visual depiction of this anarchist women group under a masculine gaze. The paper explored an idealistic representation of Mujeres Libres through visual biblical metaphors in the movie Libertarias (1996) by Vicente Aranda.
Briones-Manzano proposed that the utopian depiction emphasizes the element of historical memory, which goes from homage to political protest. She said the movie provokes a reflection on women performance in the anarchism movement and the role of women in religion. This research is part of a Digital Humanities project.
Briones-Manzano also presented at the XIX International Congress of Literature and Hispanic Studies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 8 to 10. The event was sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania
Research for the talk, “Don Quijote: Más allá de la parodia literaria,” is part of her Briones-Manzano’s book project about “quixotic postmodern parodies on cinema.”
