ORBIT - Online Repository of Birkbeck Institutional Theses Enabling Open Access to Birkbecks Research Degree output Nelly Richard’s crtica cultural : theoretical debates and politico-aesthetic explorations in Chile (1970-2015) http://bbktheses.da.ulcc.ac.uk/178/ Version: Full Version Citation: Peters Nez, Toms (2016) Nelly Richard’s crtica cultural : theoretical debates and politico-aesthetic explorations in Chile (1970-2015). PhD thesis, Birk- beck, University of London. c 2016 The Author(s) All material available through ORBIT is protected by intellectual property law, including copyright law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Deposit guide Contact: email Birkbeck, University of London Nelly Richard's crítica cultural: Theoretical debates and politico- aesthetic explorations in Chile (1970-2015) Tomás Peters Núñez Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2016 This thesis was funded by the Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, Ministerio de Educación, Chile. 2 Declaration I, Tomás Peters Núñez, declare that this thesis is all my own work. Date 25/January/2016 3 ABSTRACT This thesis describes and analyses the intellectual trajectory of the Franco- Chilean cultural critic Nelly Richard between 1970 and 2015. Using a transdisciplinary approach, this investigation not only analyses Richard's series of theoretical, political, and essayistic experimentations, it also explores Chile’s artistic production (particularly in the visual arts) and political- cultural processes over the past 45 years. In this sense, it is an examination, on the one hand, of how her critical work and thought emerged in a social context characterized by historical breaks and transformations and, on the other, of how these biographical experiences and critical-theoretical experiments derived from a specific intellectual practice that has marked her professional profile: crítica cultural. The first chapter proposes an exploration of Nelly Richard’s arrival in Chile as well as of her first critical texts on the artistic production of the 1970s. The second chapter analyses the process of institutionalization of Nelly Richard’s critical art writing during the 1980s, as well as her analytical turn towards new areas of critical thinking (such as Kristeva’s theory of signification, post-modern theory and feminism). Chapter 3 deals with Chile’s democratic transition between 1990 and 2000, as well as an in-depth analysis of the specific methodological, conceptual, and political aspects of Richard’s crítica cultural. The fourth chapter explores the way Richard has discussed and developed the question of memory in Chile from 2000 to the present. This thesis concludes that the challenge of Richard’s crítica cultural is to insist upon the search for cultural texts that are not only resistant to the culturally homogenizing policies of global capitalism and their impact on the local cultural landscape, but which also unveil and de-centre strategies of symbolic legitimization that institutionalize domination in all its forms. In this light, crítica cultural is a process of permanent refoundation. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................... 7 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ............................................................................. 8 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................. 26 The scaffolding of Nelly Richard’s thought: Aesthetic explorations at the beginning of the Chilean dictatorship (1970-1979) Introduction................................................................................................ 26 I. From May of 1968 in France to the Unidad Popular: Nelly Richard's initial years in Chile ............................................................................................. 30 II. Words, visualities, and theorizations: Richard’s initial collaborations .... 41 III. Art, body, and urban movement in dictatorial Chile: Richard on Carlos Altamirano, Francisco Smythe, and Carlos Leppe .................................... 63 IV. Towards the new scene of writing and arts of the late 1970s ............... 82 V. Conclusion ............................................................................................ 95 CHAPTER 2 .................................................................................................. 98 The Escena de Avanzada and beyond: Nelly Richard in the 1980s Introduction................................................................................................ 98 I. Cuerpo Correccional, among others ..................................................... 104 II. The making of the Escena de Avanzada ............................................. 127 III. ‘Margins and Institutions’ and the institutionalization of the Escena de Avanzada: from historic positioning to theoretical questioning ................ 154 IV. New explorations ad portas in the return to democracy: Postmodernity, identity, and (neo)feminism in Latin America ........................................... 168 V. Conclusion .......................................................................................... 179 CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................ 182 Definitions, positions, and debates around Nelly Richard’s crítica cultural in transitional Chile (1990-2000) Introduction.............................................................................................. 182 I. The Revista de Crítica Cultural: between the politics of agreement and 5 critical practice ......................................................................................... 189 II. Nelly Richard and Cultural Studies from and on Latin America ........... 209 III. The definition, practice, and institutionalization of Nelly Richard’s crítica cultural ..................................................................................................... 220 IV. Criticism of crítica cultural: two perspectives from the North .............. 241 V. Conclusion .......................................................................................... 251 CHAPTER 4 ................................................................................................ 255 Nelly Richard’s crítica de la memoria Introduction.............................................................................................. 255 I. Crítica de la memoria ........................................................................... 262 II. Cultural landscapes, aesthetic artefacts .............................................. 278 III. The challenges of crítica cultural and crítica de la memoria in recent years ....................................................................................................... 310 IV. Conclusion ......................................................................................... 325 CONCLUSIONS .......................................................................................... 329 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................... 342 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor John Kraniauskas, for his constant support, friendship, inspiration and expertise during the writing of this thesis. I am grateful to many people for their help, guidance and support during the writing of this thesis. I would like to thank Roberta Antonaci, Dario Lolli, Joselyne Contreras, Jorge Saavedra, Gabriel Valdivieso, Pedro Güell, Carlos Fonseca, Fernando Sdrigotti, Claudia Zehrt, Bea Caballero, Valentina Salinas & family, Alex and Raphael Bartolotti, Claudio Celis, Jordan Harris, Richard Armstrong, Jens Andermann, Anthony Shepherd, Javier Gajardo & family, Miriam Loebell & family, Gala Montero, Andrea Silva, Rommy Morales, Ignacio Rivera, Felipe Lagos, Felipe Palma and Martin Savransky. The research that is presented in this thesis has benefited greatly from conversations with Chilean scholars, to whom I would like to extend my thanks: Nelly Richard, Pablo Oyarzún, Carlos Ossa, Carlos Pérez Villalobos, Sergio Rojas, Federico Galende, Diamela Eltit, Willy Thayer, Ana María Risco, Sergio Villalobos-Ruminott, Grínor Rojo, and Ricardo Loebell. A part of this thesis was written during a two-month residency at the Ibero- Amerikanisches Institut of Berlin, Germany. I would also like to thank my family: Sobé Núñez, Carlos Peters, Zové Peters & family (Salvador, Colombina and Juan Manuel), David Peters & sons, Maximiliano Gutiérrez, Laijin Font, Bárbara Castelleti & family and Claudia Castelleti & family. Most of all, I wish to thank Marta Hernández Parraguez for all her patience, understanding and inspiration. This thesis is dedicated to her. 7 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Cover and inner page of 'V.I.S.U.A.L': Dos textos de Nelly Richard y Ronald Kay sobre 9 dibujos de Dittborn' Santiago, Chile (1976) _______________________________ 51 Figure 2. Inner pages of 'V.I.S.U.A.L: Dos textos de Nelly Richard y Ronald Kay sobre 9 dibujos de Dittborn' Santiago, Chile (1976). _____________________________________ 59 Figure 3. Cover and inner page of 'Cuatro Grabadores Chilenos' Cromo Gallery, Santiago, Chile (1977). ______________________________________________________________