Although
Avelar uses the cinematic version of Death and the Maiden as an example in his
thesis about "On Torture and Sexual Differences", I found many ideas
from his other theses that could be related to the movie as well. The idea
of the voice in torture struck me as extremely interesting and relatable to the
movie. In Death and The Maiden, Paulina recognizes her torturer through his voice,
which is a horrifying realization. This is not the only evidence she uses to
assure herself and her husband that Roberto was her torturer but it is
extremely significant. In the movie we see that Paulina is able to recite
dialogues that Doctor Miranda had said to her, and as an audience we can see
how ingrained those painful memories are in her.
Another theme Avelar focused on was trauma and
the effect it has on those who have been tortured. I really doubt anyone could
ever be tortured and not face the psychological damage that occurs because of
it. In O Judeau the audience sees the protagonist in agony as he reflects on
the first time he has been tortured, and Paulina shares this same type of
damage.
The selection “Nevertheless, he is oddly capable
of being the head of a commission on human rights set up by the
post-dictatorship government, and yet at the same time does not know what any
Latin American would know about torture: the torture of women invariably
includes rape and sexual violence. In other words, in trying to be feminist,
the Polanski/Dorfman film constructs a couple composed of an hysteric and an
idiot” was my favorite statement from this essay as it is funny but painfully
accurate. I also figured that reading this selection that mentions all of the
other important works we have discussed was no coincidence, and therefore many
themes and motifs we have analyzed as a class reflected the issues written
about in this passage.
Avelar's five theses do more or less summarize all the concepts covered in this course. However, I think his description of the couple in 'Death and the Maiden' is only inaccurate by half. Deeming Paulina to be a 'hysteric' woman is an insult to the abuse she and thousands of real-life women endured during the Chilean dictatorship; furthermore, a feminist-driven story would not feature a hysterical lead if it were trying to argue equality. Still, I find it pretty accurate to call Gerardo an idiot of whatever means, or perhaps that is just my opinion getting in the way of rational observation. If it does not make Gerardo an idiot to underestimate just how brutally these women were tortured, but his merit is questionable because he does not understand that it happened to his own wife. It is rather feminist to paint Gerardo in such an unflattering light, so I have to agree with Avelar there. If only men had been tortured during the dictatorship, and only men had survived these events, perhaps more would have been done to investigate the offenders in court, as was pointed out in the beginning of the play, when Paulina finds it offensive that the commission's only purpose is to provide justice for the dead and not for the living - making her own search for justice invalid. This is arguably the reason Paulina takes the matter in her own hands in the first place, to prove that women should be avenged as well for their torment.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy the two main topics you chose to discuss Fabiana. The concept of voice is so interesting. The idea that it was solely the voice that brought her back to a place she had been so long ago is fascinating. It really does tie into your second topic very well. She had to have suffered through tremendous amounts of psychological damage for the voice alone to be a trigger. Even the song that he played is now a trigger for her, once again showcasing the immense amount of damage she must now have to her mind due to the physical torture she once had to endure.
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