Cultural Residues

A complex portrait of postdictatorial Chile by one of that countrys most incisive cultural critics, this book uses memoirs, photographs, the plastic arts, novels, and other textsthe residues of a cultureto analyze the political-cultural Chilean landscape in the wake of Augusto Pinochets seventeen-year military rule. Such residual areas reveal the flaws and lapses in Chiles transition from violent military dictatorship to electoral democracy. Nelly Richard's analysis ranges from an exploration of false memories of the recent pastespecially memories of violenceto a discussion of the university under neoliberalism; from debates about the use of the word gender to an examination of refractory texts and cultural activities such as Diamela Eltits testimonio of a schizophrenic vagabond, Eugenio Dittborns use of photography in art installations, and transvestite performances. In Cultural Residues, each instance becomes a suggestive metaphor for understanding a rapidly modernizing Chile attempting to re-democratize its public life.