After training in the Pensar Institute in his native Colombia, Gabriel received his Ph.D. in Latin American Cinema and Literature from Emory University. An experienced writer and educator, Gabriel has taught at The George Washington in Washington DC, Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, The New School of Atlanta, The Savannah College of Art and Design, and Spelman College. His interdisciplinary areas of specialization include Latin American and Latinx Cinema and Literature, Latin American Horror Cinema, Migration Studies, and Decolonial Studies.
The Colombian Gothic in Cinema and Literature traces the aesthetic and political development of t... more The Colombian Gothic in Cinema and Literature traces the aesthetic and political development of the Gothic genre in Colombia. Gabriel Eljaiek-Rodríguez shows how, in the hands of Colombian writers and filmmakers, Gothic tropes are taken to their extremes to reflect particularly Colombian issues, like the ongoing armed conflict in the country since the 1950s as various left-wing guerillas, government factions and paramilitary groups escalated violence. In this context, collectives such as the "Cali group" challenge both the centrality of US and European Gothics as well as the centrality of Bogota-centered perspectives of Colombian politics and conflict. The book demonstrates how writers and filmmakers transform the European and American Gothic to show genealogical links between colonization, imperialism, and domestic elites' maintenance of social inequalities.
En este artículo se analiza la forma en que se ha construido un mapa fantasmal de la Candelaria a... more En este artículo se analiza la forma en que se ha construido un mapa fantasmal de la Candelaria a través de inclusiones y exclusiones de fantasmas y sus historias, subrayando las implicaciones de dicha construcción para el imaginario de la ciudad. Analizar estos fantasmas de la ciudad abre caminos para pensar en estos seres y sus narrativas como formas de resistencia y persistencia de la memoria—habitualmente de memorias silenciadas de manera violenta—, al mismo tiempo que permite estudiarlos como representaciones capturadas cuya presencia desplaza sucesos y personajes que son excluidos de espacios de memoria urbanos.
Resumen : Pizza, birra, faso, Bolivia y Los muertos representaron una novedad en el cine argen... more Resumen : Pizza, birra, faso, Bolivia y Los muertos representaron una novedad en el cine argentino, entre otras cosas por la inclusion y escenificacion de personajes ubicados los limites de su propia sociedad, es decir, en situaciones de subalternidad. En este articulo se analizara la manera en que estos filmes ponen en escena a los subalternos (o lo subalterno) y las implicaciones politicas de estas representaciones en el contexto de la cinematografia argentina contemporanea. El analisis estara enmarcado en los estudios subalternos latinoamericanos y los debates que el uso del termino ha generado, tanto en la academia como en las producciones culturales del continente. Palabras claves: Subalterno, Nuevo Cine Argentino, Pizza, birra, faso, Bolivia, Los muertos. Abstract: Pizza, birra, faso ; Bolivia ; and Los muertos coincide in a unique feature of Argentine cinema, that is, the inclusion and staging of marginal or subaltern characters. This article discusses the respectiv...
91 F&H While other chapters are also excellent, a final chapter of note is the concluding one. Ra... more 91 F&H While other chapters are also excellent, a final chapter of note is the concluding one. Rather different from the others, it is a reflection on three linked classes that used films (and television) extensively as vehicles for studying the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Two instructors and two students reflect on their experiences and the different ways in which adaptation is a strategy we all use to make sense of the past, whether through film, document, or other media. This is a fitting finale to the volume. These wide-ranging essays collectively showcase the ubiquity of adaptations of the past, and for that The Adaptation of History makes a worthwhile contribution to the changing domain of HistOlY.
ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America, 2019
The new online issue of ReVista is out, featuring aging in the Americas. It’s an unusual multidis... more The new online issue of ReVista is out, featuring aging in the Americas. It’s an unusual multidisciplinary perspective on the challenges of growing old, including articles and new features like videos. https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/aging-winter-2019
In this article, I will argue that ghosts are used, in two very different contexts and cases, as ... more In this article, I will argue that ghosts are used, in two very different contexts and cases, as ways to represent and discuss anxieties about the advances of science and the uses of technology, at the same time that they express a cautious fascination with these unstoppable advances. This concern with the ability of ghosts to move and adapt to technological change is not only about what happens in the films but is also related to what happens outside the films, that is, the viral expansion of ghosts stories and filmic narratives as ways to talk about social and political issues. I will work primarily with two short stories by Uruguayan writer Horacio Quiroga, “The Specter” and “The Puritan”, that I will place in dialog with two Japanese movies, The Ring by Hideo Nakata and Pulse by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, tracing their possible connections and interpolations.
The Colombian Gothic in Cinema and Literature traces the aesthetic and political development of t... more The Colombian Gothic in Cinema and Literature traces the aesthetic and political development of the Gothic genre in Colombia. Gabriel Eljaiek-Rodríguez shows how, in the hands of Colombian writers and filmmakers, Gothic tropes are taken to their extremes to reflect particularly Colombian issues, like the ongoing armed conflict in the country since the 1950s as various left-wing guerillas, government factions and paramilitary groups escalated violence. In this context, collectives such as the "Cali group" challenge both the centrality of US and European Gothics as well as the centrality of Bogota-centered perspectives of Colombian politics and conflict. The book demonstrates how writers and filmmakers transform the European and American Gothic to show genealogical links between colonization, imperialism, and domestic elites' maintenance of social inequalities.
En este artículo se analiza la forma en que se ha construido un mapa fantasmal de la Candelaria a... more En este artículo se analiza la forma en que se ha construido un mapa fantasmal de la Candelaria a través de inclusiones y exclusiones de fantasmas y sus historias, subrayando las implicaciones de dicha construcción para el imaginario de la ciudad. Analizar estos fantasmas de la ciudad abre caminos para pensar en estos seres y sus narrativas como formas de resistencia y persistencia de la memoria—habitualmente de memorias silenciadas de manera violenta—, al mismo tiempo que permite estudiarlos como representaciones capturadas cuya presencia desplaza sucesos y personajes que son excluidos de espacios de memoria urbanos.
Resumen : Pizza, birra, faso, Bolivia y Los muertos representaron una novedad en el cine argen... more Resumen : Pizza, birra, faso, Bolivia y Los muertos representaron una novedad en el cine argentino, entre otras cosas por la inclusion y escenificacion de personajes ubicados los limites de su propia sociedad, es decir, en situaciones de subalternidad. En este articulo se analizara la manera en que estos filmes ponen en escena a los subalternos (o lo subalterno) y las implicaciones politicas de estas representaciones en el contexto de la cinematografia argentina contemporanea. El analisis estara enmarcado en los estudios subalternos latinoamericanos y los debates que el uso del termino ha generado, tanto en la academia como en las producciones culturales del continente. Palabras claves: Subalterno, Nuevo Cine Argentino, Pizza, birra, faso, Bolivia, Los muertos. Abstract: Pizza, birra, faso ; Bolivia ; and Los muertos coincide in a unique feature of Argentine cinema, that is, the inclusion and staging of marginal or subaltern characters. This article discusses the respectiv...
91 F&H While other chapters are also excellent, a final chapter of note is the concluding one. Ra... more 91 F&H While other chapters are also excellent, a final chapter of note is the concluding one. Rather different from the others, it is a reflection on three linked classes that used films (and television) extensively as vehicles for studying the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Two instructors and two students reflect on their experiences and the different ways in which adaptation is a strategy we all use to make sense of the past, whether through film, document, or other media. This is a fitting finale to the volume. These wide-ranging essays collectively showcase the ubiquity of adaptations of the past, and for that The Adaptation of History makes a worthwhile contribution to the changing domain of HistOlY.
ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America, 2019
The new online issue of ReVista is out, featuring aging in the Americas. It’s an unusual multidis... more The new online issue of ReVista is out, featuring aging in the Americas. It’s an unusual multidisciplinary perspective on the challenges of growing old, including articles and new features like videos. https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/aging-winter-2019
In this article, I will argue that ghosts are used, in two very different contexts and cases, as ... more In this article, I will argue that ghosts are used, in two very different contexts and cases, as ways to represent and discuss anxieties about the advances of science and the uses of technology, at the same time that they express a cautious fascination with these unstoppable advances. This concern with the ability of ghosts to move and adapt to technological change is not only about what happens in the films but is also related to what happens outside the films, that is, the viral expansion of ghosts stories and filmic narratives as ways to talk about social and political issues. I will work primarily with two short stories by Uruguayan writer Horacio Quiroga, “The Specter” and “The Puritan”, that I will place in dialog with two Japanese movies, The Ring by Hideo Nakata and Pulse by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, tracing their possible connections and interpolations.
Resumen: La película KM 31 (2006) de Rigoberto Castañeda se destaca como un filme novedoso dentro... more Resumen: La película KM 31 (2006) de Rigoberto Castañeda se destaca como un filme novedoso dentro de la cinematografía de horror mexicana, un filme hibrido que hace uso del mito de la Llorona, de las leyendas urbanas norteamericanas y de la estética y técnica del cine de horror japonés para hablar de y denunciar la violencia contra las mujeres, específicamente los asesinatos de mujeres en Ciudad Juárez. Palabras Clave: KM 31, cine de horror mexicano-cine de horror latinoamericano-la Llorona-Ciudad Juárez. Abstract: The film KM 31 (2006) by Rigoberto Castañeda occupies a unique place within the Mexican horror genre, as a hybrid movie that makes use of the myth of La Llorona, American urban legends, and aesthetics and techniques that borrow from Japanese horror film in order to speak of and denounce violence against women, specifically the feminicides in Ciudad Juarez.
Pizza, birra, faso, Bolivia y Los muertos representaron una novedad en el cine argentino, entre o... more Pizza, birra, faso, Bolivia y Los muertos representaron una novedad en el cine argentino, entre otras cosas por la inclusión y escenificación de personajes ubicados los límites de su propia sociedad, es decir, en situaciones de subalternidad. En este artículo se analizará la manera en que estos filmes ponen en escena a los subalternos (o lo subalterno) y las implicaciones políticas de estas representaciones en el contexto de la cinematografía argentina contemporánea. El análisis estará enmarcado en los estudios subalternos latinoamericanos y los debates que el uso del término ha generado, tanto en la academia como en las producciones culturales del continente.
Pizza, birra, faso; Bolivia; and Los muertos coincide in a unique feature of Argentine cinema, that is, the inclusion and staging of marginal or subaltern characters. This article discusses the respective representation of the subaltern as well as the political implications of these representations within the framework of contemporary Argentinian cinematography. The analysis is situated within the broader field of Latin American subaltern studies and draws upon the discussions that the term generated, both in academia as well in the cultural production of the continent.
Resumen: Julio Valdivieso, protagonista de la novela El testigo de Juan Villoro, regresa a México... more Resumen: Julio Valdivieso, protagonista de la novela El testigo de Juan Villoro, regresa a México luego de varias décadas de ausencia por motivos que él cree tener claros. A medida que la novela se desarrolla las múltiples razones que trajeron de vuelta al académico (razones económicas, académicas y familiares) se van difuminando, dejando ver que su retorno responde al fi n y al cabo al llamado de un muerto que lo fi ja en la tierra. En este escrito afi rmaré que el retorno a la patria en la novela de Villoro se convierte en un retorno ominoso, que gracias a factores políticos, sociales y económicos, desfamiliariza al protagonista con aquello que debía serle más familiar –su país, su familia, sus amigos– y lo lleva de vuelta a una tierra desconocida para él, y solo familiar gracias a los fantasmas de aquello que perdió. Abstract: Julio Valdivieso, protagonist of the book El testigo by Juan Villoro, returns to Mexico aft er several decades of absence due to circumstances he thought he understood. As the novel progresses, the reasons for Valdivieso's return (be they economic, academic or family related) gradually disappear, revealing that his homecoming is really related a ghostly summons that roots him in his land. In this article I will argue that the act of homecoming in Villoro's novel is conceived as an uncanny return that, thanks to political and socioeconomic factors, defamiliarizes the protagonist from what should be for him most familiar-his country, his family and his friends, and it brings him back to an unknown land that only becomes familiar to him once again through the ghosts of what he thought he had lost.
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Pizza, birra, faso; Bolivia; and Los muertos coincide in a unique feature of Argentine cinema, that is, the inclusion and staging of marginal or subaltern characters. This article discusses the respective representation of the subaltern as well as the political implications of these representations within the framework of contemporary Argentinian cinematography. The analysis is situated within the broader field of Latin American subaltern studies and draws upon the discussions that the term generated, both in academia as well in the cultural production of the continent.
Abstract: Julio Valdivieso, protagonist of the book El testigo by Juan Villoro, returns to Mexico aft er several decades of absence due to circumstances he thought he understood. As the novel progresses, the reasons for Valdivieso's return (be they economic, academic or family related) gradually disappear, revealing that his homecoming is really related a ghostly summons that roots him in his land. In this article I will argue that the act of homecoming in Villoro's novel is conceived as an uncanny return that, thanks to political and socioeconomic factors, defamiliarizes the protagonist from what should be for him most familiar-his country, his family and his friends, and it brings him back to an unknown land that only becomes familiar to him once again through the ghosts of what he thought he had lost.