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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Performing the Mexican revolution in neoliberal times: reinventing inconographies, nation, and gender

Slaughter, Stephany Lynn
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1164735049

Abstract Details

2006, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Spanish and Portuguese.
Since the time of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, images associated with this nation-defining event have been re-imagined, re-coded and re/de-constructed in an array of media. Within the past two decades these images have been reinvented once again in reaction to changes associated with neoliberalism that brought about the demise of the hegemonic revolutionary ideology as espoused by the long-ruling Party of the Institionalized Revolution (PRI). My dissertation argues that the ascendance of neoliberalism, with the opening of Mexican economic and political systems, has resulted in changes in the socio-cultural work performed by the Revolution-Nation-Gender triad. This trinity, solidified in the post-Revolutionary national imaginary, weaves the three notions together such that as hegemonic discourses of Revolutionary nationalism enter in crisis, discourses of gender are also destabilized. The dissertation consists of three main sub-arguments. First, I argue that the discourse(s) surrounding Revolutionary heroes has been integral to the (re)definition of the Mexican nation and that analyzing recodings of this discourse through the example of Emiliano Zapata reveals a destabilization of hegemonic nationalism. These changes have allowed alternatives to surface both in Mexico and across the border as part of a recoded transnational Revolutionary nationalism. As cracks opened in the Revolutionary edifice allowing alternatives to emerge, they have also opened space for alternative gender discourses. I next argue that a close analysis of representations of masculine gender roles as manifested in a variety of cultural texts, specifically through Revolutionary icons Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, reveal a crisis of the macho archetype in the contemporary Mexican nation. Changes in male gender ideologies do not occur in isolation. Finally, I argue that the polysemous figure of the soldadera has been used both to support the status quo and to embody destabilized female gender roles. Through an analysis of representations of the Mexican Revolution articulated in a variety of artistic and cultural expressions within and beyond Mexico, this dissertation explores the ways in which some of the main cultural, social and gender ideologies linked to the post-Revolutionary doctrine are being critically questioned in contemporary Mexican society allowing alternative discourses to emerge.
Ignacio Corona (Advisor)
302 p.
Mexico; Nation; Gender; Mexican film; Cinema; Mexican Theater; Mexican Performance; Cultural Study

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Slaughter, S. L. (2006). Performing the Mexican revolution in neoliberal times: reinventing inconographies, nation, and gender [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1164735049

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Slaughter, Stephany. Performing the Mexican revolution in neoliberal times: reinventing inconographies, nation, and gender. 2006. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1164735049.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Slaughter, Stephany. "Performing the Mexican revolution in neoliberal times: reinventing inconographies, nation, and gender." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1164735049

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.