Youth In Latin America Spanish Film

Flashcards for Feminine Adolescence, Sensory Cinema, and National Allegory in Lucrecia Martel’s Films

Uncanny (Freud)

The eerie return of the repressed; the strange within the familiar.

Demon-Girl Trope

The figure of a girl whose sexuality or power is portrayed as threatening.

Phenomenological Film Theory

Focus on bodily and sensory experience over traditional narrative.

Queer Temporality

A refusal of linear development, especially in identity or sexual awakening.

Anti-narrative Cinema

Rejects traditional resolution and closure; encourages viewer discomfort.

Unpleasure

Viewer discomfort caused by disjointed narrative, oppressive sound design, and taboo subjects.

Autobiographical Fiction

Martel draws from personal diaries, childhood memories, and religious experiences.

Denaturalization

Making familiar institutions (family, religion) seem strange to reveal their constructed nature.

Embodied Gaze

The camera takes on the perspective of a body, often a child or adolescent, that suspends moral judgment.

Defamiliarization (Brecht/Shklovsky)

Alienating techniques that prevent emotional identification, promoting critical awareness.

Haptic Visuality

A tactile mode of film engagement—viewers feel rather than just see.

Embodied Spectatorship

Film is experienced through the senses: touch (tactile), motion (kinesthetic), and body awareness (proprioception).

Cinema of Attractions

Early cinema and spectacle-based formats (IMAX, 3D) designed to stimulate bodily reaction.

Optical vs. Haptic

Optical = deep focus, narrative; Haptic = surface, texture, emotion.

Phenomenology & Feminist Theory

Emphasize embodied knowledge over detached observation.

Gonzalo Thought

Guzmán’s Maoism adapted to Peruvian conditions.

People’s War

Rural-led revolutionary conflict.

Young Towns

Urban poor areas where the Shining Path recruited and targeted.

National Allegory

A narrative in which the personal journey reflects larger national or political struggles.

Voice-over as Brechtian Device

Disrupts emotional immersion to prompt critical awareness.

Homoeroticism

Repressed male sexual desire redirected through competition and shared female partner.

Oedipal Complex (Gay Variant)

Breaking taboo by “becoming the father” (Julio sleeping with Tenoch’s mom).

Composition in Depth

Visual style where foreground and background contrast social class realities.

Unheimlich

Freudian “uncanny” — familiar yet strange; applied to domestic and motherly scenes in Martel’s and Cuarón’s works.

neoliberalism

An economic and political paradigm that emphasizes free markets, deregulation, and reduction of government spending, often criticized for increasing inequality.

neo-exoticism

A trend in Latin American cinema that reinterprets cultural elements to appeal to Western audiences, often blending traditional themes with contemporary aesthetics.

American exceptionalism

The belief that the United States is inherently different from other nations, often linked to ideals of democracy, liberty, and a special role in the world.