Artigos de revistas sobre o tema "Chile – Historia – Novelas"

El artículo toma como objeto de estudio la trilogía de novelas de Carlos Sepúlveda Leyton, profesor normalista y representante de la Asociación General de Profesores de Chile (AGP). La trilogía está compuesta por las novelas autobiográficas Hijuna… (1934), La Fábrica (1935) y Camarada (1938), las cuales fueron analizadas en dos niveles narrativos: en primer lugar, la escritura de las experiencias alusivas a la escuela, a la formación/profesión docente y al movimiento político pedagógico de la AGP; en segundo lugar, los recursos narrativos utilizados por el autor para dar cuenta de dichas experiencias. La trilogía de Carlos Sepúlveda Leyton es un caso de Novelas de formación docente, en tanto muestra el desarrollo de un personaje al interior de la escuela primaria, la Escuela Normal de Preceptores y luego en su ejercicio como maestro. El estudio propone la utilidad de este y otros materiales literarios para reconstruir la historia del profesorado chileno, a partir de las narrativas autobiográficas de sus docentes.

El artículo analiza cómo las dos novelas se complementan entre sí para ilustrar distintos impulsos autoritarios. En estas obras Bolaño analiza la forma en la cual el fascismo domina el ámbito cultural chileno. Si bien está claro que el personaje principal de Estrella distante, un oficial de la Fuerza Aérea de Chile durante la dictadura de Pinochet, tiene tendencias fascistas, el personaje principal de Nocturno de Chile, un sacerdote del Opus Dei, desea permanecer fuera de los tiempos políticamente tumultuosos de la historia reciente. Sostengo que, al analizar a estos dos personajes juntos, podemos ver cómo la cultura fascista define la literatura como autónoma de la historia y la política. El novelista analiza los mecanismos del fascismo literario y al mismo tiempo busca desmantelar esta tendencia fascista sin reinstaurar la misma lógica en sus propias obras al caracterizar los personajes como jánicos (Jano bifronte). Los personajes jánicos desafían los binarismos de identidad y diferencia, formulando una noción de lo político que procura desmitificar y repensar binarismos políticos.

Esta investigación surge de una actividad de pregrado de Periodismo de la Universidad de los Andes en Chile (2018). Con el propósito de elaborar un relato extenso durante el semestre, los cincuenta estudiantes de la clase de Escritura Creativa desarrollaron colectivamente novelas de ficción. A pesar de no existir directivas previas sobre el contenido, todas las historias representaron a la familia como protagonista o de manera secundaria. A partir de las nueve novelas producidas, este trabajo analiza el retrato de familia en los relatos de ficción de jóvenes universitarios. Las influencias del material audiovisual de ficción aparecen como elemento central en el corpus analizado. Gracias a un análisis de contenido de las novelas digitales centrado en el tipo de familia representada, se concluye que las ficciones juveniles refuerzan el rol de la familia como entorno necesario para el bienestar del sujeto, independiente del enfoque de cada novela.

La imagen como forma de denuncia y relectura histórica se han vuelto prácticas discursivas comunes al interior de la nueva narrativa gráfica en Chile, en donde las autoras y autores contemporáneos han decidido utilizar el cómic como una plataforma capaz de hablar sobre nuestra propia historia. En cada uno de estos relatos, los elementos visuales propios de la novela gráfica se encuentran al servicio de una tentativa de reconstrucción de la memoria histórica del país, y que desde su ficcionalidad se acercarán a una lectura de nuestro devenir como nación, la cual debe ser problematizada.

En este artículo de reflexión se analiza la propuesta carnavalesca de la novela El arte de la resurrección (2010), de Hernán Rivera Letelier, y los poemarios Sermones y prédicas del Cristo de Elqui (1977) y Nuevos sermones y prédicas del Cristo de Elqui (1979), de Nicanor Parra. En estas obras interviene como protagonista un excéntrico predicador de existencia real en la historia de Chile: Domingo Zárate Vega, mejor conocido como el Cristo de Elqui. Se retoman planteamientos teóricos de Mijail Bajtín para explorar la risa y la locura como recursos estéticos que generan una visión crítica sobre la miseria de los mineros en las salitreras del desierto chileno, la dictadura militar de Augusto Pinochet y La matanza de la Escuela Santa María de Iquique (21 de diciembre de 1907).Palabras clave: Cristo de Elqui, antipoesía, narrativa chilena, carnaval, historia.

Este artículo construye sus argumentos a partir de una lectura de la novela Estrella distante del escritor chileno Roberto Bolaño. Se trata de desarrollos que se detienen en los componentes visuales del relato, en las divergencias temporales con que se estructura la narración y en los vínculos que estos tienden con la historia política evocada en la ficción (el personaje principal tiene como proyecto demostrarle al mundo la afinidad entre el arte de vanguardia y la dictadura de Pinochet recién instalada en el país). Las variadas presencias de lo fotográfico son comprendidas como el núcleo de una reflexión visual que recorre la literatura de Roberto Bolaño. Este artículo toma en consideración una polémica que enfrentó a dos intelectuales chilenos en torno a la relación entre las prácticas artísticas de vanguardia que tuvieron lugar en Chile en tiempos de la dictadura y el Golpe de Estado de 1973. Esto es leído en relación con el diálogo soterrado que la novela de Bolaño establece con dichas prácticas de vanguardia.

Narratives for children about Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile (1973–89) written by the sons and daughters of that era constitute a recognised genre. For the most part the genre features boy characters who not only have voice and choice, but also unrealistically win the fight against the oppressors. This paper examines two of the rare works with girl protagonists, paying attention to how their voices are constructed: Mariana Osorio Gumá's Tal vez vuelvan los pájaros [Maybe the birds will return] (Mexico, 2013) and Matilde by Carola Martínez Arroyo (Argentina, 2016). I apply Deleuze's theories about the gaze to girls to identify patterns that afford the construction of ‘lucid’ protagonists in terms of recurring modes of language production (silence, ordered discourse, invention), giving rise to inquisitive girls. Through the construction of a girl's lucid gaze, which can withstand and narrate the horrors of the dictatorship, these novels offer young audiences a powerful space for historic and collective memory.

El objetivo del trabajo es demostrar que el periódico Correo de la Exposición (1875), surgido como suplemento de la Exhibición Internacional de Chile de 1875, fue un “aparato estético” (Déotte), superando su carácter complementario. La novedad de este trabajo radica en que se descubre el discurso cientificista y artístico que profundiza los avances obtenidos en am-bas materias hacia 1875. Las conclusiones del trabajo señalan que Correo de la Exposición impuso sus propias reglas exhibitivas y mecanismos de aparición especialmente de las Bellas Artes, por lo cual es un periódico relevante para la historia de la crítica artística chilena.

Córka cieni — from orphan’s typology and children studies to prosthetic memory and memory boomIn the article are discussed orphan’s motif and its variants shown in a cycle of novels Córka cieni. There are presented variants with explanations. Afterwards their presence has been shown in curriculum vitae of a protagonist — Juliana Dors, in sequence of written relations with others orphans characters and abandoned children. In the second part there was considered if searching her paternity was searching of her identity as well. At last there were shown historic events in which the main character takes part with her family. The main character had historical background, but there was considered if she lived like every child and women of war in the Polish People’s Republic.

El narrador chileno Hernán Rivera Letelier (Talca, 1950) presenta en su más reciente novela, La contadora de películas (2009), una trama que propone –en una primera instancia– una visión sesgada del vínculo tradicional entre literatura, cine y fabulación (en este caso, transposición del texto fílmico a formas de narración oral). Desde su incipit, el relato –ubicado en un alejado pueblo minero del interior norteño de Chile– parece consolidarse como un homenaje a dos formas de "arte", ambas amenazadas en la época contemporánea: el de transponer las imágenes fílmicas a una dimensión verbal, y el oficio –casi una ceremonia de matices religiosos en ciertas comunidades– de contar historias. En una segunda etapa, el análisis textual demuestra, sin embargo, que ambas habilidades están emprendiendo el camino del declive como consecuencia de la afirmación de artefactos tecnológicos que –en tanto manifestación del control ejercido por el aparato social– acaban practicando una represión de las facultades comunicativas del ser humano. En este sentido, la novela enlaza con los estudios que Gilles Deleuze había desarrollado acerca de aquellas estructuras sociales dominadas por la tecnología y caracterizadas por un cierto tipo de subjetividades en las que se estimula la creatividad solo si existe una recompensa en términos monetarios. La conexión con el pensamiento de Deleuze pasa, en el relato de Letelier, por el vínculo que el autor chileno establece también con las proféticas reflexiones de Walter Benjamin: si el filósofo alemán, ya en la década del treinta del siglo pasado, había denunciado el peligro de extinción de dos formas de comunicación tradicionales como el "arte de construir y relatar historias" y la costumbre de escucharlas de forma compartida, la moraleja del texto de Letelier delata la incapacidad del ser humano de proteger sus hábitos atávicos de las modificaciones históricas, tecnológicas y socio-culturales de la posmodernidad.

For nearly a century, literary tourists have sought the settings of L.M. Montgomery’s novel Anne of Green Gables on picturesque Prince Edward Island, Canada. As tourism infrastructure on the Island developed in the latter twentieth century, tourists’ whimsical wearing of red braids to emulate the novel’s girl protagonist became a popular practice. Playing “Anne,” while certainly a different experience depending on whether one is a little girl, an adult woman, or an adult man, is today a widely practiced performance of tourist identity. Through close readings of visitor comment cards, tourism promotions, souvenir hats, and the Green Gables Heritage Place historic site operated by Parks Canada, this article argues that the desire to play “Anne” rehearses themes of Anne’s anticipation, arrival, child-like wonder, and outsider status, all of which resonate with a touristic perception of place.

Thatcherism offered a promise of future prosperity based on unleashing the young male's ambition; simultaneously, its ‘Victorian values’ sought to retrieve a moral past. Literary depictions of Thatcherism make the child central to a resulting contradiction between imagined moral past and materialistic future. The disappearance of the child recurs in Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor (1985), Ian McEwan's The Child in Time (1987), and Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty (2004). These novels satirise how Thatcherism managed the contradictions in its vision of the future by attempting to regulate the child's ambitions. They even use the abducted, killed, or simply disappeared child to audaciously parody both the results of Thatcherite policy and contemporaneous practices of literary and psychoanalytic Theory, as each struggles to represent the child's interests in the future. Here Thatcherite materialism leads, unintentionally and ironically, to unacceptable material ambitions in the child.

Representations of Sigmund Freud in early 21st century US American novels rely on and respond to the image of Freud that emerged from investigations by Paul Roazen (Brother Animal, 1969) and Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (The Assault on Truth, 1984), which cast doubt on the validity of the Oedipus complex. Relying on Roazen, Brenda Webster's Vienna Triangle ( 2009 ) links Freud's oedipal thinking to paranoia and male masochism. Working with Masson, Selden Edwards's The Little Book ( 2008 ) takes Freud to task for abandoning the seduction theory in favour of the Oedipus complex. Jed Rubenfeld's The Interpretation of Murder ( 2006 ) rethinks the Oedipus complex as a projection of adults onto their children. All three novels seek to celebrate Freud's understanding of the human psyche, while shifting the focus of the oedipal structure away from the murderous and lustful child toward the adult.

This article examines Jules Vallès's portrayal of an abusive parent-child relationship in his 1879 novel L'Enfant, showing how the author's narrative techniques, in particular his use of an unstable first-person narrative voice, undermine the notion of parental authority. Situating this novel in its historical context, I show that although it was published a decade before France's first law protecting children from physical abuse, authors of childrearing guides from as early as the 1820s were already advocating moral as opposed to corporal punishments for children. Not only does Vallès cast his critical eye on parent-child dynamics but also he widens the novel's scope by creating an analogy between the authority of parents in the home and that exercised by the State in schools. Moreover, through the young protagonist's rejection of his parents’ professional aspirations for him, Vallès's provocative novel challenges the classic nineteenth-century narrative of progress through upward social mobility.

In this essay, I explore the representations of spoken language by animals in La Storia by Elsa Morante. Furthermore, I seek to examine the ways in which humans, namely little Useppe, express themselves with animals and interpret what is said, but I also seek to discover what elements may predispose Useppe to be privy to code-sharing with these creatures of other species. While the interactions in this tragic novel are mainly between humans, it is worthwhile to consider the relationship between Useppe and birds, canines, equines, and felines. He acts as a type of intermediary between the species, though I venture to say that he shares more in common with animals than with humans: “Useppe rimaneva del tutto estraneo, e inconsapevole, come un cucciolo ingabbiato in una fiera” (Morante 458; “Useppe remained completely estranged, and unaware, like a puppy caged and put on display” [translation my own]), like a child raised amongst wolves. Since my research examines interspecies communication, I have used zoosemiotics as a starting point. My main focus, then, will be on how Morante successfully employs zoosemiotic notions to make the “spoken” as well as gesticulative communication of the animal reflect the animal’s temperament and emotional nature—even as a synecdoche for the archetype of the animal proper—and interpretable by the human interlocutor. That is, through implicit knowledge of zoosemiotics, these symbols are not just interpreted by Useppe but answered using a mutually decipherable code. In this way, Morante illuminates the profound relationships between humans and animals, relationships that are sustained due to the myriad means by which interspecies communication, compassion, and cooperation intersect and flourish in this novel. Resumen En este artículo, exploro las representaciones del lenguaje hablado por los animales en La historia de la escritora italiana Elsa Morante. Además, quiero examinar los modos en los que los humanos, el niño Useppe en particular, se expresan con los animales e interpretan lo que estos últimos les dicen, pero quiero también descubrir qué elementos hacen que Useppe esté predispuesto a poder compartir códigos con criaturas de otra especie. Mientras que las interacciones en esta novela trágica son, en la mayor parte, entre humanos, es importante considerar las relaciones entre Useppe y algunos pájaros, caninos, equinos y felinos. Él actúa como una especie de intermediario entre las especies, aunque me aventuro a plantear que tiene más en común con los animales que no con los seres humanos: “Useppe rimaneva del tutto estraneo, e inconsapevole, come un cucciolo ingabbiato in una fiera” (Morante 458; “Useppe permanecía completamente extraño, e ignorante, como un cachorro enjaulado en una exposición” [traducción mía]), como un niño que fue criado por lobos. Ya que mis investigaciones examinan la comunicación interespecie, utilicé la zoosemiótica como punto de partida. Me concentro, entonces, en la manera en que Morante emplea con éxito unas nociones zoosemióticas para que lo que “dicen” los animales, tanto como con la voz como con las acciones, refleje el temperamento y la naturaleza emocional de estos—incluso como una sinécdoque del arquetipo del animal propio—y hace que el humano pueda interpretarlos. Es decir, a través de conocimientos implícitos de la zoosemiótica, Useppe no solamente interpreta estos símbolos sino que responde con un código descifrable por él y los animales con los cuales se comunica. De este modo, Morante ilumina las relaciones profundas entre humanos y animales, relaciones que se sostienen a causa de los medios con los cuales la comunicación, la compasión y la cooperación entre especie se entrecruzan y florecen en la novela.

Coral Lansbury wrote in a number of different registers and genres. Serially, she was an Australian radio script and ‘soaps’ writer, studied in New Zealand as an expatriate, became a Distinguished Professor of English specialising in British Victorian Studies in the USA and then a novelist. As well as boomeranging between writing careers and countries of the Anglosphere, the thrice-married Lansbury experienced widowhood, unmarried motherhood and divorce; she abandoned her child to her husband and later reconciled with her son. Her life reads like a plot from one of her novels. Lansbury was not active in women’s associations or the organised feminist movement. Her radio work, lectures and book tours in which she expounded her ‘crypto’ and, then later, ‘economic’ and ‘conservative-anarchist’ feminism were ephemeral. I argue that she should be repatriated into the history of postwar Australian feminism because, while mercurial and living in the USA, she pursued an expatriate professional strategy successfully and consistently sought to extend women’s vocation through kinds of popular literature. Her work reveals pluralism as much as contradiction.

AbstractThis essay describes a new context for understanding the political stakes of US fiction described as postsecular—namely, the emergence of global human rights consciousness in the later twentieth century. Placing Americanist literary criticism’s recent “religious turn” in dialogue with the field of literature and human rights yields new insights for each, I argue. To demonstrate the benefits of this critical dialogue, I interpret two major novels studied by the “religious turn”—Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead—in relation to the United Nations’ responsibility to protect doctrine, which has reshaped the concept and practice of humanitarian intervention in the twenty-first century. Each novel dramatizes a dying father’s strained deliberations over the ethics of intervention on behalf of a vulnerable child—the subject whose maturation provides the figural foundation for human rights consciousness—against potentially grave harm. Each, moreover, deploys language and concepts of spiritual ambiguity to illuminate ethical and epistemological dilemmas that beset decisions regarding whether or not to intervene. Locating sacredness in the subject of human rights, McCarthy’s and Robinson’s texts enmesh rights claims and spiritual idioms in ways that suggest new critical paths for both Americanists and scholars of human rights and literature.

It is surprising that despite its impassioned lobbying against the debilitating capital-driven purposefulness of time, Marx's work remains singularly resistant to the concept of pure leisure, to the idea of recreation for its own sake. When leisure does surface in Marx's discussion of alienated labour, it is frequently as a detail in a far grander plan, telling us little about the personal impact it had on its practitioners. Prevailing upon the radical forms and practices of leisure advocated, archived, and theorized by Paul Lafargue and Jacques Rancière, this essay proposes a reading of Jules Vallès's novel L'Enfant (1878) that sees in it a prolegomenon for a politics of idleness that both outstrips the restricted economy this notion takes on in Marx and offers a powerful, indisciplinary indictment of a world without ‘free time’. As with Lafargue and Rancière, Vallès leaves us scrutinizing the root radicality of those intermittent moments where things cease to happen, where idleness becomes, for the eponymous child of the novel's title, a transformative, emancipatory practice of the self in which time, space, and relations to others (and to the self) are reappropriated as sensuous, sociable ends-unto-themselves.

Los tiempos actuales son convulsos y requieren de un riguroso análisis intelectual, mismo que permita identificar los causales de las problemáticas que más lastiman a la región, pero sobre todo, permitir construir alternativas y horizontes de cambio, plantear y proponer que es posible una transformaci- ón de la situación actual de Nuestra América en donde el capitalismo y la violencia no son el destino al cual debemos someter a nuestros pueblos. En las primeras semanas de diciembre, se llevó a cabo la reunión de la Organización Mundial de Comercio (OMC), en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, primera que se realiza en Sudamérica, cuyo mensaje entre líneas era la idea del final de los gobiernos llamados progresistas, el afianzamiento del neoliberalismo y con ello, del libre mercado como el único camino a seguir en la región. Se proponen mercados y flujos de capitales libres, pero sociedades oprimidas por la ambición de las trasnacionales que se han convertido en mercancías, los derechos de los trabajadores, la vida y los recursos naturales. La reunión de la OMC se llevó a cabo en medio de fuertes medidas de seguridad y en lugares cerrados, mientras en la emblemática Avenida 9 de Julio de la capital Argentina, trabajadores, estudiantes, ambientalistas, defensores de derechos humanos, campesinos, indígenas, desempleados, feministas, sindicalistas y miles de activistas repudiaban las negociaciones y la posición de la Organización que sólo pretende beneficiar y acrecentar los beneficios corporativos. Pero las protestas no sólo tuvieron lugar contra la presencia de la OMC y su agenda aperturista, el gobierno de Macri impuso en esos días una reforma previsional que en síntesis disminuye las jubilaciones promedio, además de castigar el gasto de seguridad social. Se trata de un embate del capitalismo financiero que ha impuesto su agenda y que pretende garantizar el pago de sus beneficios a costa del presupuesto público. Las protestas sociales fueron masivas, pero el uso de la fuerza pública se hizo presente; numerosas imágenes quedarán gravadas debido al proceder brutal e intolerante del actual régimen argentino que castigó severamente a quienes se opusieron a este ajuste (más no reforma), como correctamente se le identificó por los manifestantes en las calles y en las múltiples consignas. Una muestra clara de que el neoliberalismo y sus ideólogos fortalecen su embate y no están dispuestos a ceder su lugar predominante como política de Estado en la mayoría de los gobiernos latinoamericanos, pero ello implica violencia, represión y muerte a quienes se oponen a sus corporativos preceptos. Otro caso que llamó la atención en semanas recientes es el lastimoso e indignante indulto humanitario al expresidente peruano Alberto Fujimori concedido por el actual mandatario, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, en medio de polémica y una posible destitución debido a las acusaciones de recibir sobornos por parte de la constructora brasileña Odebrecht. El presidente en turno no fue destituido, pero en plenas celebraciones navideñas concedió el indulto al genocida ex mandatario, dejando sin castigo los actos de corrupción y convirtiendo en una víctima a quien atentó contra los derechos humanos de numeroso ciudadanos y opositores a su régimen de terror. En México, los tiempos no son mejores, el país ha sido azotado por la violencia, los fenómenos naturales como los terremotos y la puesta en marcha de la transición presidencial que opera en medio de prácticas coercitivas y poco democráticas, además de una amnesia histórica entre quienes olvidan los actos de corrupción cometidos por sus correligionarios. Se avecina una coyuntura en la cual se apuesta por el marketing y se demerita las funciones reales de un régimen político al servicio de la sociedad. Nuestro país estará nuevamente presente en la reflexión de los sucesos políticos, económicos y sociales por venir en este año electoral en donde es claro que el neoliberalismo ha dejado una herencia de despojo y precariedad para millones de mexicanos, cuyo hartazgo al modelo definirá en gran medida el futuro de América Latina. Es el momento de despertar de este letargo dependentista, es el tiempo en que la utopía nos permita caminar y abrir las puertas a una nueva realidad, reflexión que es una herencia del gran maestro Eduardo Galeano. Debe frenarse el avance de la derecha en nuestra región; los resultados de las elecciones en Honduras y Chile, así como actuar de los gobiernos, en los casos ya comentados deben prender las alertas sobre los riesgos de que el actual modelo de dominación se profundice en México y en las restantes naciones latinoamericanas que en este año se sujetarán a procesos electorales. Ante esta compleja realidad, se requieren reflexiones y aportes que nos permitan silenciar con argumentos rigurosos al pensamiento hegemónico de la derecha. La lectura crítica de los tiempos actuales es vital y desde todas las expresiones sociales, económicas, humanísticas y artísticas se debe afirmar que la agenda de los organismos financieros internacionales no es aceptada por los pueblos. En razón de ello, es motivo de celebración que durante 2017 se llevaron a cabo númerosos y éxitosos eventos que nos recordaran los 100 años del inicio de la Revolución Rusa y los 150 años de la publicación y vigencia del Capital de Karl Marx. En el año 2018, recordaremos las protestas de estudiantes, obreros y el magisterio entre otros actores sociales, quienes demandaron un cambio político y social en México, aspiraciones truncadas hace 50 años en la masacre de la Plaza de las Tres Culturas de Tlatelolco. En el curso de esta vorágine capitalista, estamos ciertos que requerimos espacios alternativos para poder manifestar nuestra oposición al sistema. Ante esta realidad avasallante, la revista De Raíz Diversa reafirma su compromiso con el pensamiento crítico y la difusión del conocimiento realizado por la comunidad intelectual latinoamericana. El actual número incluye trabajos que abordan temas centrales en los Estudios Latinoamericanos contemporáneos. El primero de ellos es el elaborado por Daniel Inclán titulado “Violencia y diseño de territorios. La relación negada de la economía contemporánea en América Latina”. El texto estudia las formas en las que opera la violencia en la vida social del siglo XXI. Se afirma que no estamos ante un desajuste de la vida civilizada, tampoco ante una anomia. La violencia es estructural en la vida social, juega un papel estratégico en la definición de las realizaciones culturales contemporáneas; es una realidad de múltiples niveles, con diferentes ritmos y con diversas escalas. Los dos siguientes trabajos se fundamentan en analizar los aportes y discusiones que surgen a partir de la teoría de la dependencia; el primero es realizado por Pablo Cuevas Valdés y se titula, “La unidad mundial de la acumulación de capital y la renta de la tierra: una contra-crítica desde la teoría de la dependencia”. El texto tiene por objetivo analizar las diversas lecturas y críticas que desde la economía política tiene el resurgimiento y auge de la teoría marxista de la dependencia en varios países de la región. Se trata de críticas que pretenden superar la noción de economía dependiente, principalmente a partir de la idea de “unidad mundial de la acumulación de capital”. El texto realiza una contra-crítica a estas formulaciones. El segundo trabajo se titula: “Meditaciones dusselianas acerca de la teoría de la dependencia y su fundamento” y es elaborado por Juan Cristóbal Cárdenas Castro. El artículo analiza dos asertos que han formado parte del núcleo de diferendos que han mantenido diversos científicos sociales latinoamericanos en torno a la cuestión de la dependencia. En primer lugar, la tesis sobre el fundamento de la teoría dependentista; en segundo lugar, el carácter de la superexplotación (o sobreexplotación) de la fuerza de trabajo. Para tales propósitos, se hace una revisión crítica de la manera en que el filósofo Enrique Dussel medita sobre esos asuntos. El cuarto artículo que integra este número se titula “Los buenos vivires. Una aproximación a las corrientes teóricas del buen vivir”, elaborado por Emilio Nudelman, documento en el cual se reflexiona acerca del debate reciente que se suscitó en diversos espacios académicos, gubernamentales, y al interior de distintos movimientos sociales, sobre dos conceptos que a primera vista parecieran contrarios y excluyentes: desarrollo y buen vivir. El concepto desarrollo es fuertemente cuestionado, y en muchos casos se contrapone a éste el concepto buen vivir, el cual adquirió notoriedad internacional tras convertirse en principios constitucionales de Ecuador y Bolivia, con base en formas de vida propias de los pueblos originarios andinos y amazónicos: sumak kawsay y sumaq qamaña. Pero éstas no son las únicas expresiones del buen vivir, debido a que no existe un buen vivir sino distintas formas de vivir bien, o muchos buenos vivires. Pablo Alderete Soto nos presenta el trabajo “Formas de politización campesina en Chile, una aproximación microhistórica (Curicó, 1941-1942)”. Los enfoques con los cuales tradicionalmente se ha pesquisado el problema de la politización campesina en el periodo anterior a la reforma agraria en Chile, han oscilado entre los que afirman la ausencia absoluta de movilización y acción política por parte de las comunidades campesinas y las que enfatizan la politización formal y semi-autónoma de los sindicatos agrícolas. En este artículo, por el contrario, se propone una tercera vía de análisis histórico: especificar el ecosistema social agrario, dando cuenta de las estratificaciones laborales y su incidencia en la politización, las luchas laborales cotidianas y las especificidades del hábitat sociocultural curicano. Dos trabajos abordan la incidencia del cine como instrumento de propaganda y como un instrumento esencial para recuperar la memoria y el testimonio del pasado reciente. Iniciamos con el artículo “La propaganda fílmica gubernamental mexicana (1934-1940)” escrito por Jesús Roberto Bautista Reyes. En el gobierno de Lázaro Cárdenas, la propaganda fílmica gubernamental persiguió dos fines específicos: al interior, fortalecer y legitimar al régimen emanado de la Revolución; y al exterior, difundir la misma Revolución como proyecto político con la capacidad de modernizar al país. Es así que cobra vital importancia entender las temáticas de las películas realizadas y cómo fueron proyectadas en toda Latinoamérica, con el objetivo principal de construir una zona de influencia cultural que al final se tradujera en una influencia política. El segundo lleva por título “Cine de memoria: del cine militante a Seré Millones”, escrito por Raúl Roydeen García Aguilar y José Axel García Ancira Astudillo. El estudio de la relación entre cine y memoria requiere la visibilización de diversos factores que intervienen en su constitución, tales como su distinción con el relato histórico oficial y los factores coyunturales, políticos y psicoló- gicos que permiten que un suceso o un proceso social se cristalice en el imaginario de una comunidad, para tal fin se problematiza con la obra Seré millones (Mascaró cine, 2014) por sus estrategias intermediales, intertextuales y de fundamento metaficcional. Los artículos concluyen con el texto “Todo lo que no te dirán Mongo: desarmando los mythscapes canadienses” con la literatura de Dany Laferrière, realizado por Alexandre Beaudoin Duquette. En este trabajo, se busca contribuir a desarmar los principales mythscapes nacionales canadienses, el multiculturalismo y el interculturalismo, usando Tout ce qu’on ne te dira pas Mongo (Todo lo que no te dirán Mongo) de Dany Laferrière, un escritor haitiano establecido en Montreal. El autor parte de la hipótesis de que la novela ofrece elementos de información incompatibles con dichos mythscapes nacionales, por lo cual constituye una oportunidad de aprendizaje. Inspirándose en el giro de las movilidades, así como en las teorías de los regímenes de movilidad, el autor acude a los estudios literarios para cuestionar la imagen estereotipada, propagada por actores sociales de poder, representados por los aparatos estatales de Canadá y Quebec, con el afán de aprovechar la fuga de cerebro para fortalecer su ventaja competitiva en un mercado globalizado. El número cierra con tres reseñas de material bibliográfico de reciente aparición. En esta sección se comenta el libro Cuando solo reinasen los indios. La política aymara en la era de la insurgencia, que busca recuperar e iluminar la historia del pueblo aymara en un momento y una región particular: 1780-81, en donde se escenificó una trascendental insurrección pan-andina. El segundo libro reseñado titulado: Neoliberalismo: treinta años de migración en América Latina, México y Michoacán, nos habla de tres décadas de migración, en la región, tomando como caso de estudio a México, pero analizando el fenómeno migratorio en una perspectiva global y en el contexto neoliberal. Finalmente en la sección de reseñas, Capitalismo en el nuevo siglo: el actual desorden Mundial, se refiere a un material que analiza los cambios en los últimos cuarenta años del sistema económico mundial y sus especificidades en la región de América Latina, resultantes de la crisis del capitalismo. No se puede concluir esta editorial sin agradecer las invaluables colaboraciones y propuestas realizadas por el actual Comité Editorial que amablemente aceptó sumarse a este proyecto. Para ellas y ellos un reconocimiento por parte de todo el equipo que hace posible la edición de la revista.

Los tiempos actuales son convulsos y requieren de un riguroso análisis intelectual, mismo que permita identificar los causales de las problemáticas que más lastiman a la región, pero sobre todo, permitir construir alternativas y horizontes de cambio, plantear y proponer que es posible una transformaci- ón de la situación actual de Nuestra América en donde el capitalismo y la violencia no son el destino al cual debemos someter a nuestros pueblos. En las primeras semanas de diciembre, se llevó a cabo la reunión de la Organización Mundial de Comercio (OMC), en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, primera que se realiza en Sudamérica, cuyo mensaje entre líneas era la idea del final de los gobiernos llamados progresistas, el afianzamiento del neoliberalismo y con ello, del libre mercado como el único camino a seguir en la región. Se proponen mercados y flujos de capitales libres, pero sociedades oprimidas por la ambición de las trasnacionales que se han convertido en mercancías, los derechos de los trabajadores, la vida y los recursos naturales. La reunión de la OMC se llevó a cabo en medio de fuertes medidas de seguridad y en lugares cerrados, mientras en la emblemática Avenida 9 de Julio de la capital Argentina, trabajadores, estudiantes, ambientalistas, defensores de derechos humanos, campesinos, indígenas, desempleados, feministas, sindicalistas y miles de activistas repudiaban las negociaciones y la posición de la Organización que sólo pretende beneficiar y acrecentar los beneficios corporativos. Pero las protestas no sólo tuvieron lugar contra la presencia de la OMC y su agenda aperturista, el gobierno de Macri impuso en esos días una reforma previsional que en síntesis disminuye las jubilaciones promedio, además de castigar el gasto de seguridad social. Se trata de un embate del capitalismo financiero que ha impuesto su agenda y que pretende garantizar el pago de sus beneficios a costa del presupuesto público. Las protestas sociales fueron masivas, pero el uso de la fuerza pública se hizo presente; numerosas imágenes quedarán gravadas debido al proceder brutal e intolerante del actual régimen argentino que castigó severamente a quienes se opusieron a este ajuste (más no reforma), como correctamente se le identificó por los manifestantes en las calles y en las múltiples consignas. Una muestra clara de que el neoliberalismo y sus ideólogos fortalecen su embate y no están dispuestos a ceder su lugar predominante como política de Estado en la mayoría de los gobiernos latinoamericanos, pero ello implica violencia, represión y muerte a quienes se oponen a sus corporativos preceptos. Otro caso que llamó la atención en semanas recientes es el lastimoso e indignante indulto humanitario al expresidente peruano Alberto Fujimori concedido por el actual mandatario, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, en medio de polémica y una posible destitución debido a las acusaciones de recibir sobornos por parte de la constructora brasileña Odebrecht. El presidente en turno no fue destituido, pero en plenas celebraciones navideñas concedió el indulto al genocida ex mandatario, dejando sin castigo los actos de corrupción y convirtiendo en una víctima a quien atentó contra los derechos humanos de numeroso ciudadanos y opositores a su régimen de terror. En México, los tiempos no son mejores, el país ha sido azotado por la violencia, los fenómenos naturales como los terremotos y la puesta en marcha de la transición presidencial que opera en medio de prácticas coercitivas y poco democráticas, además de una amnesia histórica entre quienes olvidan los actos de corrupción cometidos por sus correligionarios. Se avecina una coyuntura en la cual se apuesta por el marketing y se demerita las funciones reales de un régimen político al servicio de la sociedad. Nuestro país estará nuevamente presente en la reflexión de los sucesos políticos, económicos y sociales por venir en este año electoral en donde es claro que el neoliberalismo ha dejado una herencia de despojo y precariedad para millones de mexicanos, cuyo hartazgo al modelo definirá en gran medida el futuro de América Latina. Es el momento de despertar de este letargo dependentista, es el tiempo en que la utopía nos permita caminar y abrir las puertas a una nueva realidad, reflexión que es una herencia del gran maestro Eduardo Galeano. Debe frenarse el avance de la derecha en nuestra región; los resultados de las elecciones en Honduras y Chile, así como actuar de los gobiernos, en los casos ya comentados deben prender las alertas sobre los riesgos de que el actual modelo de dominación se profundice en México y en las restantes naciones latinoamericanas que en este año se sujetarán a procesos electorales. Ante esta compleja realidad, se requieren reflexiones y aportes que nos permitan silenciar con argumentos rigurosos al pensamiento hegemónico de la derecha. La lectura crítica de los tiempos actuales es vital y desde todas las expresiones sociales, económicas, humanísticas y artísticas se debe afirmar que la agenda de los organismos financieros internacionales no es aceptada por los pueblos. En razón de ello, es motivo de celebración que durante 2017 se llevaron a cabo númerosos y éxitosos eventos que nos recordaran los 100 años del inicio de la Revolución Rusa y los 150 años de la publicación y vigencia del Capital de Karl Marx. En el año 2018, recordaremos las protestas de estudiantes, obreros y el magisterio entre otros actores sociales, quienes demandaron un cambio político y social en México, aspiraciones truncadas hace 50 años en la masacre de la Plaza de las Tres Culturas de Tlatelolco. En el curso de esta vorágine capitalista, estamos ciertos que requerimos espacios alternativos para poder manifestar nuestra oposición al sistema. Ante esta realidad avasallante, la revista De Raíz Diversa reafirma su compromiso con el pensamiento crítico y la difusión del conocimiento realizado por la comunidad intelectual latinoamericana. El actual número incluye trabajos que abordan temas centrales en los Estudios Latinoamericanos contemporáneos. El primero de ellos es el elaborado por Daniel Inclán titulado “Violencia y diseño de territorios. La relación negada de la economía contemporánea en América Latina”. El texto estudia las formas en las que opera la violencia en la vida social del siglo XXI. Se afirma que no estamos ante un desajuste de la vida civilizada, tampoco ante una anomia. La violencia es estructural en la vida social, juega un papel estratégico en la definición de las realizaciones culturales contemporáneas; es una realidad de múltiples niveles, con diferentes ritmos y con diversas escalas. Los dos siguientes trabajos se fundamentan en analizar los aportes y discusiones que surgen a partir de la teoría de la dependencia; el primero es realizado por Pablo Cuevas Valdés y se titula, “La unidad mundial de la acumulación de capital y la renta de la tierra: una contra-crítica desde la teoría de la dependencia”. El texto tiene por objetivo analizar las diversas lecturas y críticas que desde la economía política tiene el resurgimiento y auge de la teoría marxista de la dependencia en varios países de la región. Se trata de críticas que pretenden superar la noción de economía dependiente, principalmente a partir de la idea de “unidad mundial de la acumulación de capital”. El texto realiza una contra-crítica a estas formulaciones. El segundo trabajo se titula: “Meditaciones dusselianas acerca de la teoría de la dependencia y su fundamento” y es elaborado por Juan Cristóbal Cárdenas Castro. El artículo analiza dos asertos que han formado parte del núcleo de diferendos que han mantenido diversos científicos sociales latinoamericanos en torno a la cuestión de la dependencia. En primer lugar, la tesis sobre el fundamento de la teoría dependentista; en segundo lugar, el carácter de la superexplotación (o sobreexplotación) de la fuerza de trabajo. Para tales propósitos, se hace una revisión crítica de la manera en que el filósofo Enrique Dussel medita sobre esos asuntos. El cuarto artículo que integra este número se titula “Los buenos vivires. Una aproximación a las corrientes teóricas del buen vivir”, elaborado por Emilio Nudelman, documento en el cual se reflexiona acerca del debate reciente que se suscitó en diversos espacios académicos, gubernamentales, y al interior de distintos movimientos sociales, sobre dos conceptos que a primera vista parecieran contrarios y excluyentes: desarrollo y buen vivir. El concepto desarrollo es fuertemente cuestionado, y en muchos casos se contrapone a éste el concepto buen vivir, el cual adquirió notoriedad internacional tras convertirse en principios constitucionales de Ecuador y Bolivia, con base en formas de vida propias de los pueblos originarios andinos y amazónicos: sumak kawsay y sumaq qamaña. Pero éstas no son las únicas expresiones del buen vivir, debido a que no existe un buen vivir sino distintas formas de vivir bien, o muchos buenos vivires. Pablo Alderete Soto nos presenta el trabajo “Formas de politización campesina en Chile, una aproximación microhistórica (Curicó, 1941-1942)”. Los enfoques con los cuales tradicionalmente se ha pesquisado el problema de la politización campesina en el periodo anterior a la reforma agraria en Chile, han oscilado entre los que afirman la ausencia absoluta de movilización y acción política por parte de las comunidades campesinas y las que enfatizan la politización formal y semi-autónoma de los sindicatos agrícolas. En este artículo, por el contrario, se propone una tercera vía de análisis histórico: especificar el ecosistema social agrario, dando cuenta de las estratificaciones laborales y su incidencia en la politización, las luchas laborales cotidianas y las especificidades del hábitat sociocultural curicano. Dos trabajos abordan la incidencia del cine como instrumento de propaganda y como un instrumento esencial para recuperar la memoria y el testimonio del pasado reciente. Iniciamos con el artículo “La propaganda fílmica gubernamental mexicana (1934-1940)” escrito por Jesús Roberto Bautista Reyes. En el gobierno de Lázaro Cárdenas, la propaganda fílmica gubernamental persiguió dos fines específicos: al interior, fortalecer y legitimar al régimen emanado de la Revolución; y al exterior, difundir la misma Revolución como proyecto político con la capacidad de modernizar al país. Es así que cobra vital importancia entender las temáticas de las películas realizadas y cómo fueron proyectadas en toda Latinoamérica, con el objetivo principal de construir una zona de influencia cultural que al final se tradujera en una influencia política. El segundo lleva por título “Cine de memoria: del cine militante a Seré Millones”, escrito por Raúl Roydeen García Aguilar y José Axel García Ancira Astudillo. El estudio de la relación entre cine y memoria requiere la visibilización de diversos factores que intervienen en su constitución, tales como su distinción con el relato histórico oficial y los factores coyunturales, políticos y psicoló- gicos que permiten que un suceso o un proceso social se cristalice en el imaginario de una comunidad, para tal fin se problematiza con la obra Seré millones (Mascaró cine, 2014) por sus estrategias intermediales, intertextuales y de fundamento metaficcional. Los artículos concluyen con el texto “Todo lo que no te dirán Mongo: desarmando los mythscapes canadienses” con la literatura de Dany Laferrière, realizado por Alexandre Beaudoin Duquette. En este trabajo, se busca contribuir a desarmar los principales mythscapes nacionales canadienses, el multiculturalismo y el interculturalismo, usando Tout ce qu’on ne te dira pas Mongo (Todo lo que no te dirán Mongo) de Dany Laferrière, un escritor haitiano establecido en Montreal. El autor parte de la hipótesis de que la novela ofrece elementos de información incompatibles con dichos mythscapes nacionales, por lo cual constituye una oportunidad de aprendizaje. Inspirándose en el giro de las movilidades, así como en las teorías de los regímenes de movilidad, el autor acude a los estudios literarios para cuestionar la imagen estereotipada, propagada por actores sociales de poder, representados por los aparatos estatales de Canadá y Quebec, con el afán de aprovechar la fuga de cerebro para fortalecer su ventaja competitiva en un mercado globalizado. El número cierra con tres reseñas de material bibliográfico de reciente aparición. En esta sección se comenta el libro Cuando solo reinasen los indios. La política aymara en la era de la insurgencia, que busca recuperar e iluminar la historia del pueblo aymara en un momento y una región particular: 1780-81, en donde se escenificó una trascendental insurrección pan-andina. El segundo libro reseñado titulado: Neoliberalismo: treinta años de migración en América Latina, México y Michoacán, nos habla de tres décadas de migración, en la región, tomando como caso de estudio a México, pero analizando el fenómeno migratorio en una perspectiva global y en el contexto neoliberal. Finalmente en la sección de reseñas, Capitalismo en el nuevo siglo: el actual desorden Mundial, se refiere a un material que analiza los cambios en los últimos cuarenta años del sistema económico mundial y sus especificidades en la región de América Latina, resultantes de la crisis del capitalismo. No se puede concluir esta editorial sin agradecer las invaluables colaboraciones y propuestas realizadas por el actual Comité Editorial que amablemente aceptó sumarse a este proyecto. Para ellas y ellos un reconocimiento por parte de todo el equipo que hace posible la edición de la revista.

El año es 1896 y el escenario la capital chilena. Los actores, tanto las élites como las clases trabajadoras, cuyas reacciones a un hecho de sangre, el asesinato de Sara Bell, están sedimentadas en distintos formatos impresos: periódicos, hojas sueltas, novelas de actualidad, prensa satírica e incluso piezas dramáticas llevadas a las tablas. Con esa pluralidad de fuentes, en este volumen compuesto por siete capítulos, Tomás Cornejo reconstruye con pericia y profundidad los diferentes circuitos desde los cuales se produjeron y difundieron discursos culturales alrededor de ese acontecimiento que se denominó el crimen de la calle Fontecilla. Cada uno de los capítulos da cuenta de un universo coherente en sí mismo, pero en su articulación queda plasmada la complejidad de la sociedad chilena al finalizar el siglo xix y despuntar el xx.

Resumen: La investigación que aquí se presenta tiene por objetivo reconocer los componentes característicos con que son significados los académicos formadores de profesores considerados memorables, desde la perspectiva de profesores noveles de Pedagogía en Educación General Básica y Pedagogía en Historia y Geografía que cursaron estudios en universidades de la macrozona centro sur de Chile. A partir de un estudio cualitativo de corte interpretativo, se obtuvo resultados que evidencian la configuración de cuatro categorías de análisis, las cuales exponen diversas características que revelan la importancia del rol del formador y su impacto en el profesorado.

Extracto del artículo publicado por el autor en Revista de Tecnología Educativa. Vol. XII. Nos. 3-4. Chile. 1999 Las últimas décadas se han caracterizado por un natural predominio del discurso político que ha teñido las reflexiones sobre la acción con juicios más bien maniqueos. Está haciendo mucha falta la objetividad de la reflexión académica. Estos Diálogos son una manera de hacer escuchar la voz de la Universidad de Chile, que fue la historia de la educación chilena y que necesita ser expresada nuevamente. Las investigaciones de esta época, particularmente las internacionales, se generan como reacción interesada -y asaz curiosa- ante la audaz novedad del cambio paradigmático, mercadización de los servicios sociales como una panacea y, consecuentemente, miran con mucho y real interés el experimento chileno.

Este ensayo explora, dentro del contexto de la Revolución mexicana, la representación de la mujer de finales de los años veinte del siglo pasado, a través de la novela Pensativa, de Jesús Goytortúa Santos. Es a su vez un estudio que destaca la presencia femenina en la historia a partir de uno de los géneros de la literatura, en una época matizada bajo la concepción familiar y social de que su rol debía circunscribirse únicamente al marco limitado del hogar. Se aborda su imagen a partir de su actuación durante la primera rebelión de los cristeros (1926- 1929).

Amy’s Marathon of Reading continues westward. Her Marathon of Hope project was mentioned in this column before but as it continues to gather momentum and as it relevant to the topic of this special issue, I thought it pertinent to mention it again. From her website: “ Inspired by Terry Fox’s and Rick Hansen’s Canadian journeys, Amy Mathers decided to honour her passion for reading and Canadian teen literature while working around her physical limitations through a Marathon of Books. Realising that Terry Fox could run a kilometre in six minutes during his Marathon of Hope, she figured out that she could read ten pages in the same amount of time. Thus, on her journey, ten pages will represent one kilometre travelled across Canada. Amy will be reading teen fiction books from every province and territory, exploring Canada and promoting Canadian teen authors and books by finishing a book a day for each day of 2014. She will write a review for each book she reads, and invites people to share their thoughts on the books she reads too.” For more information and to see how far Amy’s marathon has taken her so far, go to http://amysmarathonofbooks.ca/Upcoming events and exhibitsKAMLOOPS WRITERS FESTIVAL, Nov. 7-9, 2014, Old Courthouse Cultural Centre. Guest authors include children’s author Lois Peterson.WORKSHOP: Reading Challenges and Options for Young People with Disabilities. Friday, November 14, 2014; 11:30 am to 1:00 pm. REGISTRATION and more information: https://www.microspec.com/tix123/eTic.cfm?code=BOOKFAIR14 International and Canadian experts will discuss reading challenges and options for children and teens with disabilities, with examples from the IBBY Collection of Books for Young People with Disabilities. This outstanding international collection, formerly in Norway and now housed at North York Central Library, encompasses 3,000 books in traditional formats and accessible formats including sign language, tactile, Braille, and Picture Communication Symbols.There are two major opportunities to hear award winning author Kit Pearson in Toronto and Vancouver in the upcoming months. Kit will be presenting “The Sanctuary of Story” for the 8th Annual Sybille Pantazzi Memorial Lecture on Thursday November 13, 8 p.m., in the Community room, Lillian H. Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library.Kit Pearson will also be the guest speaker at A Celebration of Award Winning BC Authors and Illustrators of 2014 at A Wine and Cheese event from 7 – 9 p.m. at January 21, 2015. (Event venue still to be confirmed. Please check www.vclr.ca for updates.) The event celebrates many other BC winners and finalists of the Governor General’s Literary Awards, the BC Book Prizes, the VCLR Information Book Award, and several other important awards.For those of you in the Toronto area be sure to check out the exhibit Lest We Forget: War in Books for Young Readers, September 15 – December 6, 2014, at the Osborne Collection. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War.Do not forget to Celebrate Freedom to Read Week, February 22-28, 2015, the annual event that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom, which is guaranteed them under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.Serendipity 2015 promises to be a tantalizing affair. An Edgy, Eerie, Exceptional Serendipity 2015 (Saturday March 7, 2015) with Holly Black, Andrew Smith, Mariko Tamaki, Molly Idle, and Kelli Chipponeri will have captivating discussions ranging from haunted dolls and worlds of nightmare, to the raw emotion and exceptional beauty of growing up. The event, a members-only event, includes breakfast, lunch, and snacks. [This may be a very good incentive to become a member!] More information at http://vclr.ca/serendipity-2015/Call for papers and presentationsYALSA is currently seeking program proposals and paper presentations for its 2015 Young Adult Services Symposium, Bringing it All Together: Connecting Libraries, Teens & Communities, to be held Nov. 6-8, 2015, in Portland, Ore. The theme addresses the key role of connection that librarians have for the teens in their community. YALSA invites interested parties to propose 90-minute programs centering on the theme, as well as paper presentations offering new, unpublished research relating to the theme. Applications for all proposals can be found http://www.ala.org/yalsa/yasymposium . Proposals for programs and paper presentations must be completed online by Dec. 1, 2014. Applicants will be notified of their proposals’ status by Feb. 1, 2015.Book Award newsThe 2014 Information Book Award Finalists. The winner and honor title, voted by members of the Children’s Literature Roundtables, will be announced November 17, 2014 in Vancouver.Before the World Was Ready: Stories of Daring Genius in Science by Claire Eamer. Annick Press. Follow Your Money by Kevin Sylvester and Michael Hlinka. Annick Press.Looks Like Daylight: Voices of Indigenous Kids by Deborah Ellis. Groundwood Books. Pay It Forward Kids: Small Acts, Big Change by Nancy Runstedler. Fitzhenry & Whiteside.Pedal It! How Bicycles are Changing the World by Michelle Mulder. Orca Book Publishers.The list of nominees for the 2015 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) includes 50 first-time nominees among a total of 197 candidates from 61 countries. Canadian nominees include The Canadian Children’s Book Centre (Organisation, nominated by IBBY Canada) and authors Sarah Ellis and Marie-Francine Hébert. Full list available at http://www.alma.se/en/Nominations/Candidates/2015/The winners of the 2014 Governor General’s Literary Award will be announced November 18, 2014. The nominated titles for children’s literature (English text) are:Jonathan Auxier, (Pittsburgh, Pa.) – The Night Gardener (Penguin Canada)Lesley Choyce, (East Laurencetown, N.S.) – Jeremy Stone (Red Deer Press)Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley – Skraelings (Inhabit Media Inc.)Raziel Reid, (Vancouver) – When Everything Feels like the Movies (Arsenal Pulp Press)Mariko Tamaki, (Oakland, Calif.) – This One Summer (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press)Nominations for illustration in (English) children’s literature are:Marie-Louise Gay, (Montreal) – Any Questions?, text by Marie-Louise Gay (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press)Qin Leng, (Toronto) – Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin, text by Chieri Uegaki (Kids Can Press)Renata Liwska, (Calgary) – Once Upon a Memory, text by Nina Laden (Little, Brown and Company)Julie Morstad, (Vancouver) – Julia, Child, text by Kyo Maclear (Tundra Books)Jillian Tamaki, (Brooklyn, N.Y.) – This One Summer, text by Mariko Tamaki (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press)Nominations for (French) children’s literature (text) are:Linda Amyot, (St-Charles-Borromée, Que.) – Le jardin d'Amsterdam (Leméac Éditeur)India Desjardins, (Montreal) – Le Noël de Marguerite (Les Éditions de la Pastèque)Patrick Isabelle, (Montreal) – Eux (Leméac Éditeur)Jean-François Sénéchal, (Saint-Lambert, Que.) – Feu (Leméac Éditeur)Mélanie Tellier, (Montreal) – Fiona (Marchand de feuilles)Nominations for (French) children’s literature (illustration):Pascal Blanchet, (Trois-Rivières, Que.) – Le Noël de Marguerite, text by India Desjardins (Les Éditions de la Pastèque)Marianne Dubuc, (Montreal) – Le lion et l'oiseau, text by Marianne Dubuc (Les Éditions de la Pastèque)Manon Gauthier, (Montreal) – Grand-mère, elle et moi…, text by Yves Nadon (Éditions Les 400 coups)Isabelle Malenfant, (Montreal) – Pablo trouve un trésor, text by Andrée Poulin (Éditions Les 400 coups)Pierre Pratt, (Montreal) – Gustave, text by Rémy Simard (Les Éditions de la Pastèque)Online resources:Welcome to the Teachers' Book Bank! This database of Canadian historical fiction and non-fiction books is brought to you by the Canadian Children's Book Centre with Historica Canada, and funded by the Government of Canada. These titles may be used by teachers to introduce topics and themes in Canadian history and by students carrying out research projects. Many of the books also offer opportunities for cross-curricular connections in language arts, geography, the arts, science and other subjects. In most cases, publishers have indicated specific grade levels and age ranges to guide selection. For lesson plans to go with these books, visit Historica Canada's Canadian Encyclopedia. http://bookbank.bookcentre.ca/index.php?r=site/CCBCChairing Stories on Facebook Created in response to requests from former students of Gail de Vos’s online courses on Canadian Children’s Literature and Graphic Novels and comic books, this page celebrates books, their creators, and their audiences. Postings for current students too! Check it out at https://www.facebook.com/ChairingStoriesPresented by Gail de VosGail de Vos, an adjunct instructor, teaches courses on Canadian children's literature, Young Adult Literature and Comic Books and Graphic Novels at the School of Library and Information Studies for the University of Alberta and is the author of nine books on storytelling and folklore. She is a professional storyteller and has taught the storytelling course at SLIS for over two decades

During the War on Terror, the United States military has been conducting an increasing number of foreign campaigns by remote control using drones—also called unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs)—to extend the reach of military power and augment the technical precision of targeted strikes while minimizing bodily risk to American combatants. Stationed on bases throughout the southwest, operators fly weaponized drones over the Middle East. Viewing the battle zone through a computer screen that presents them with imagery captured from a drone-mounted camera, these combatants participate in war from a safe distance via an interface that resembles a video game. Increasingly, this participation takes the form of targeted killing. Despite their relative physical safety, in 2008 reports began mounting that like boots-on-the-ground combatants, many drone operators seek the services of chaplains or other mental health professionals to deal with the emotional toll of their work (Associated Press; Schachtman). Questions about the nature of the stress or trauma that drone operators experience have become a trope in news coverage of drone warfare (see Bumiller; Bowden; Saleton; Axe). This was exemplified in May 2013, when former Air Force drone pilot Brandon Bryant became a public figure after speaking to National Public Radio about his remorse for participating in targeted killing strikes and his subsequent struggle with post-traumatic stress (PTS) (Greene and McEvers). Stories like Bryant’s express American culture’s struggle to understand the role screen-mediated, remotely controlled killing plays in shifting the location of combatants’s sense of moral agency. That is, their sense of their ability to act based on their own understanding of right and wrong. Historically, one of the primary ways that psychiatry has conceptualized combat trauma has been as combatants’s psychological response losing their sense of moral agency on the battlefield (Lifton).This articleuses the popular science fiction novel Ender's Game as an analytic lens through which to examine the ways that screen-mediated warfare may result in combat trauma by investigating the ways in which it may compromise moral agency. The goal of this analysis is not to describe the present state of drone operators’s experience (see Asaro), but rather to compare and contrast contemporary public discourses on the psychological impact of screen-mediated war with the way it is represented in one of the most influential science fiction novels of all times (The book won the Nebula Award in 1985, the Hugo Award in 1986, and appears on both the Modern Library 100 Best Novels and American Library Association’s “100 Best Books for Teens” lists). In so doing, the paper aims to counter prevalent modes of critical analysis of screen-mediated war that cannot account for drone operators’s trauma. For decades, critics of postmodern warfare have denounced how fighting from inside tanks, the cockpits of planes, or at office desks has removed combatants from the experiences of risk and endangerment that historically characterized war (see Gray; Levidow & Robins). They suggest that screen-mediation enables not only physical but also cognitive and emotional distance from the violence of war-fighting by circumscribing it in a “magic circle.” Virtual worlds scholars adopted the term “magic circle” from cultural historian Johan Huizinga, who described it as the membrane that separates the time and space of game-play from those of real life (Salen and Zimmerman). While military scholars have long recognized that only 2% of soldiers can kill without hesitation (Grossman), critics of “video game wars” suggest that screen-mediation puts war in a magic circle, thereby creating cyborg human-machine assemblages capable of killing in cold blood. In other words, these critics argue that screen-mediated war distributes agency between humans and machines in such a way that human combatants do not feel morally responsible for killing. In contrast, Ender’s Game suggests that even when militaries utilize video game aesthetics to create weapons control interfaces, screen-mediation alone ultimately cannot blur the line between war and play and thereby psychically shield cyborg soldiers from combat trauma.Orson Scott Card’s 1985 novel Ender’s Game—and the 2013 film adaptation—tells the story of a young boy at an elite military academy. Set several decades after a terrible war between humans and an alien race called the buggers, the novel follows the life of a boy named Ender. At age 6, recruiters take Andrew “Ender” Wiggin from his family to begin military training. He excels in all areas and eventually enters officer training. There he encounters a new video game-like simulator in which he commands space ship battalions against increasingly complex configurations of bugger ships. At the novel’s climax, Ender's mentor, war hero Mazer Rackham, brings him to a room crowded with high-ranking military personnel in order to take his final test on the simulator. In order to win Ender opts to launch a massive bomb, nicknamed “Little Doctor”, at the bugger home world. The image on his screen of a ball of space dust where once sat the enemy planet is met by victory cheers. Mazer then informs Ender that since he began officer training, he has been remotely controlling real ships. The video game war was, "Real. Not a game" (Card 297); Ender has exterminated the bugger species. But rather than join the celebration, Ender is devastated to learn he has committed "xenocide." Screen-mediation, the novel shows, can enable people to commit acts that they would otherwise find heinous.US military advisors have used the story to set an agenda for research and development in augmented media. For example, Dr. Michael Macedonia, Chief Technology Officer of the Army Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation told a reporter for the New York Times that Ender's Game "has had a lot of influence on our thinking" about how to use video game-like technologies in military operations (Harmon; Silberman; Mead). Many recent programs to develop and study video game-like military training simulators have been directly inspired by the book and its promise of being able to turn even a six-year-old into a competent combatant through well-structured human-computer interaction (Mead). However, it would appear that the novel’s moral regarding the psychological impact of actual screen-mediated combat did not dissuade military investment in drone warfare. The Air Force began using drones for surveillance during the Gulf War, but during the Global War on Terror they began to be equipped with weapons. By 2010, the US military operated over 7,000 drones, including over 200 weapons-ready Predator and Reaper drones. It now invests upwards of three-billion dollars a year into the drone program (Zucchino). While there are significant differences between contemporary drone warfare and the plot of Ender's Game—including the fact that Ender is a child, that he alone commands a fleet, that he thinks he is playing a game, and that, except for a single weapon of mass destruction, he and his enemies are equally well equipped—for this analysis, I will focus on their most important similarities: both Ender and actual drone operators work on teams for long shifts using video game-like technology to remotely control vehicles in aerial combat against an enemy. After he uses the Little Doctor, Mazer and Graff, Ender's long-time training supervisors, first work to circumvent his guilt by reframing his actions as heroic. “You're a hero, Ender. They've seen what you did, you and the others. I don't think there's a government on Earth that hasn't voted you their highest metal.” “I killed them all, didn't I?” Ender asked. “All who?” asked Graff. “The buggers? That was the idea.” Mazer leaned in close. “That's what the war was for.” “All their queens. So I killed all their children, all of everything.” “They decided that when they attacked us. It wasn't your fault. It's what had to happen.” Ender grabbed Mazer's uniform and hung onto it, pulling him down so they were face to face. “I didn't want to kill them all. I didn't want to kill anybody! I'm not a killer! […] but you made me do it, you tricked me into it!” He was crying. He was out of control. (Card 297–8)The novel up to this point has led us to believe that Ender at the very least understands that what he does in the game will be asked of him in real life. But his traumatic response to learning the truth reveals that he was in the magic circle. When he thinks he is playing a game, succeeding is a matter of ego: he wants to be the best, to live up to the expectations of his trainers that he is humanity’s last hope. When the magic circle is broken, Ender reconsiders his decision to use the Little Doctor. Tactics he could justify to win the game, reframed as real military tactics, threaten his sense of himself as a moral agent. Being told he is a hero provides no solace.Card wrote the novel during the Cold War, when computers were coming to play an increasingly large role in military operations. Historians of military technology have shown that during this time human behavior began to be defined in machine-like, functionalist terms by scientists working on cybernetic systems (see Edwards; Galison; Orr). Human skills were defined as components of large technological systems, such as tanks and anti-aircraft weaponry: a human skill was treated as functionally the same as a machine one. The only issue of importance was how all the components could work together in order to meet strategic goals—a cybernetic problem. The reasons that Mazer and Graff have for lying to Ender suggest that the author believed that as a form of technical augmentation, screen-mediation can be used to evacuate individual moral agency and submit human will to the command of the larger cybernetic system. Issues of displaced agency in the military cyborg assemblage are apparent in the following quote, in which Mazer compares Ender himself to the bomb he used to destroy the bugger home world: “You had to be a weapon, Ender. Like a gun, like the Little Doctor, functioning perfectly but not knowing what you were aimed at. We aimed you. We're responsible. If there was something wrong, we did it” (298). Questions of distributed agency have also surfaced in the drone debates. Government and military leaders have attempted to depersonalize drone warfare by assuring the American public that the list of targets is meticulously researched: drones kill those who we need killed. Drone warfare, media theorist Peter Asaro argues, has “created new and complex forms of human-machine subjectivity” that cannot be understood by considering the agency of the technology alone because it is distributed between humans and machines (25). While our leaders’s decisions about who to kill are central to this new cyborg subjectivity, the operators who fire the weapons nevertheless experience at least a retrospective sense of agency. As phenomenologist John Protevi notes, in the wake of wars fought by modern military networks, many veterans diagnosed with PTS still express guilt and personal responsibility for the outcomes of their participation in killing (Protevi). Mazer and Graff explain that the two qualities that make Ender such a good weapon also create an imperative to lie to him: his compassion and his innocence. For his trainers, compassion means a capacity to truly think like others, friend or foe, and understand their motivations. Graff explains that while his trainers recognized Ender's compassion as an invaluable tool, they also recognized that it would preclude his willingness to kill.It had to be a trick or you couldn't have done it. It's the bind we were in. We had to have a commander with so much empathy that he would think like the buggers, understand them and anticipate them. So much compassion that he could win the love of his underlings and work with them like a perfect machine, as perfect as the buggers. But somebody with that much compassion could never be the killer we needed. Could never go into battle willing to win at all costs. If you knew, you couldn't do it. If you were the kind of person who would do it even if you knew, you could never have understood the buggers well enough. (298)In learning that the game was real, Ender learns that he was not merely coming to understand a programmed simulation of bugger behavior, but their actual psychology. Therefore, his compassion has not only helped him understand the buggers’ military strategy, but also to identify with them.Like Ender, drone operators spend weeks or months following their targets, getting to know them and their routines from a God’s eye perspective. They both also watch the repercussions of their missions on screen. Unlike fighter pilots who drop bombs and fly away, drone operators use high-resolution cameras and fly much closer to the ground both when flying and assessing the results of their strikes. As one drone operator interviewed by the Los Angeles Times explained, "When I flew the B-52, it was at 30,000 to 40,000 feet, and you don't even see the bombs falling … Here, you're a lot closer to the actual fight, or that's the way it seems" (Zucchino). Brookings Institute scholar Peter Singer has argued that in this way screen mediation actually enables a more intimate experience of violence for drone operators than airplane pilots (Singer).The second reason Ender’s trainers give for lying is that they need someone not only compassionate, but also innocent of the horrors of war. The war veteran Mazer explains: “And it had to be a child, Ender,” said Mazer. “You were faster than me. Better than me. I was too old and cautious. Any decent person who knows what warfare is can never go into battle with a whole heart. But you didn't know. We made sure you didn't know" (298). When Ender discovers what he has done, he loses not only his innocence but his sense of himself as a moral agent. After such a trauma, his heart is no longer whole.Actual drone operators are, of course, not kept in a magic circle, innocent of the repercussions of their actions. Nor do they otherwise feel as though they are playing, as several have publicly stated. Instead, they report finding drone work tedious, and some even play video games for fun (Asaro). However, Air Force recruitment advertising makes clear analogies between the skills they desire and those of video game play (Brown). Though the first generations of drone operators were pulled from the ranks of flight pilots, in 2009 the Air Force began training them from the ground. Many drone operators, then, enter the role having no other military service and may come into it believing, on some level, that their work will be play.Recent military studies of drone operators have raised doubts about whether drone operators really experience high rates of trauma, suggesting that the stresses they experience are seated instead in occupational issues like long shifts (Ouma, Chappelle, and Salinas; Chappelle, Psy, and Salinas). But several critics of these studies have pointed out that there is a taboo against speaking about feelings of regret and trauma in the military in general and among drone operators in particular. A PTS diagnosis can end a military career; given the Air Force’s career-focused recruiting emphasis, it makes sense that few would come forward (Dao). Therefore, it is still important to take drone operator PTS seriously and try to understand how screen-mediation augments their experience of killing.While critics worry that warfare mediated by a screen and joystick leads to a “‘Playstation’ mentality towards killing” (Alston 25), Ender's Game presents a theory of remote-control war wherein this technological redistribution of the act of killing does not, in itself, create emotional distance or evacuate the killer’s sense of moral agency. In order to kill, Ender must be distanced from reality as well. While drone operators do not work shielded by the magic circle—and therefore do not experience the trauma of its dissolution—every day when they leave the cyborg assemblage of their work stations and rejoin their families they still have to confront themselves as individual moral agents and bear their responsibility for ending lives. In both these scenarios, a human agent’s combat trauma serves to remind us that even when their bodies are physically safe, war is hell for those who fight. This paper has illustrated how a science fiction story can be used as an analytic lens for thinking through contemporary discourses about human-technology relationships. However, the US military is currently investing in drones that are increasingly autonomous from human operators. This redistribution of agency may reduce incidence of PTS among operators by decreasing their role in, and therefore sense of moral responsibility for, killing (Axe). Reducing mental illness may seem to be a worthwhile goal, but in a world wherein militaries distribute the agency for killing to machines in order to reduce the burden on humans, societies will have to confront the fact that combatants’s trauma cannot be a compass by which to measure the morality of wars. Too often in the US media, the primary stories that Americans are told about the violence of their country’s wars are those of their own combatants—not only about their deaths and physical injuries, but their suicide and PTS. To understand war in such a world, we will need new, post-humanist stories where the cyborg assemblage and not the individual is held accountable for killing and morality is measured in lives taken, not rates of mental illness. ReferencesAlston, Phillip. “Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions, Addendum: Study on Targeted Killings.” United Nations Human Rights Council (2010). Asaro, Peter M. “The Labor of Surveillance and Bureaucratized Killing: New Subjectivities of Military Drone Operators”. Social Semiotics 23.2 (2013): 196-22. Associated Press. “Predator Pilots Suffering War Stress.” Military.com 2008. Axe, David. “How to Prevent Drone Pilot PTSD: Blame the ’Bot.” Wired June 2012.Bowden, Mark. “The Killing Machines: How to Think about Drones.” The Atlantic Sep. 2013.Brown, Melissa T. Enlisting Masculinity: The Construction of Gender in US Military Recruiting Advertising during the All-Volunteer Force. London: Oxford University Press, 2012. Bumiller, Elisabeth. “Air Force Drone Operators Report High Levels of Stress.” New York Times 18 Dec. 2011: n. pag. Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game. Tom Doherty Associates, Inc., 1985. Chappelle, Wayne, D. Psy, and Amber Salinas. “Psychological Health Screening of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) Operators and Supporting Units.” Paper presented at the Symposium on Mental Health and Well-Being across the Military Spectrum, Bergen, Norway, 12 April 2011: 1–12. Dao, James. “Drone Pilots Are Found to Get Stress Disorders Much as Those in Combat Do.” New York Times 22 Feb. 2013: n. pag. Edwards, Paul N. The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997.Galison, Peter. “The Ontology of the Enemy: Norbert Wiener and the Cybernetic Vision.” Critical Inquiry 21.1 (1994): 228.Gray, Chris Hables “Posthuman Soldiers in Postmodern War.” Body & Society 9.4 (2003): 215–226. 27 Nov. 2010.Greene, David, and Kelly McEvers. “Former Air Force Pilot Has Cautionary Tales about Drones.” National Public Radio 10 May 2013.Grossman, David. On Killing. Revised. Boston: Back Bay Books, 2009. Harmon, Amy. “More than Just a Game, But How Close to Reality?” New York Times 3 Apr. 2003: n. pag. Levidow, Les, and Robins. Cyborg Worlds: The Military Information Society. London: Free Association Books, 1989. Lifton, Robert Jay. Home from the War: Vietnam Veterans: Neither Victims nor Executioners. New York: Random House, 1973. Mead, Corey. War Play: Video Games and the Future of Armed Conflict. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. Orr, Jackie. Panic Diaries: A Genealogy of Panic Disorder. Durham: Duke University Press, 2006.Ouma, J.A., W.L. Chappelle, and A. Salinas. Facets of Occupational Burnout among US Air Force Active Duty and National Guard/Reserve MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper Operators. Air Force Research Labs Technical Report AFRL-SA-WP-TR-2011-0003. Wright-Patterson AFB, OH: Air Force Research Laboratory. 2011.Protevi, John. “Affect, Agency and Responsibility: The Act of Killing in the Age of Cyborgs.” Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 7.3 (2008): 405–413. Salen, Katie, and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003. Saleton, William. “Ghosts in the Machine: Do Remote-Control War Pilots Get Combat Stress?” Slate.com Aug. 2008. Schachtman, Nathan. “Shrinks Help Drone Pilots Cope with Robo-Violence.” Wired Aug. 2008.Silberman, Steve. “The War Room.” Wired Sep. 2004: 1–5.Singer, P.W. Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Penguin Press, 2009. Zucchino, David. “Drone Pilots Have Front-Row Seat on War, from Half a World Away.” Los Angeles Times 21 Feb. 2010: n. pag.

Introduction: Our current obsession with the lives of others “Biography—that is to say, our creative and non-fictional output devoted to recording and interpreting real lives—has enjoyed an extraordinary renaissance in recent years,” writes Nigel Hamilton in Biography: A Brief History (1). Ian Donaldson agrees that biography is back in fashion: “Once neglected within the academy and relegated to the dustier recesses of public bookstores, biography has made a notable return over recent years, emerging, somewhat surprisingly, as a new cultural phenomenon, and a new academic adventure” (23). For over a decade now, commentators having been making similar observations about our obsession with the intimacies of individual people’s lives. In a lecture in 1994, Justin Kaplan asserted the West was “a culture of biography” (qtd. in Salwak 1) and more recent research findings by John Feather and Hazel Woodbridge affirm that “the undiminished human curiosity about other peoples lives is clearly reflected in the popularity of autobiographies and biographies” (218). At least in relation to television, this assertion seems valid. In Australia, as in the USA and the UK, reality and other biographically based television shows have taken over from drama in both the numbers of shows produced and the viewers these shows attract, and these forms are also popular in Canada (see, for instance, Morreale on The Osbournes). In 2007, the program Biography celebrated its twentieth anniversary season to become one of the longest running documentary series on American television; so successful that in 1999 it was spun off into its own eponymous channel (Rak; Dempsey). Premiered in May 1996, Australian Story—which aims to utilise a “personal approach” to biographical storytelling—has won a significant viewership, critical acclaim and professional recognition (ABC). It can also be posited that the real home movies viewers submit to such programs as Australia’s Favourite Home Videos, and “chat” or “confessional” television are further reflections of a general mania for biographical detail (see Douglas), no matter how fragmented, sensationalized, or even inane and cruel. A recent example of the latter, the USA-produced The Moment of Truth, has contestants answering personal questions under polygraph examination and then again in front of an audience including close relatives and friends—the more “truthful” their answers (and often, the more humiliated and/or distressed contestants are willing to be), the more money they can win. Away from television, but offering further evidence of this interest are the growing readerships for personally oriented weblogs and networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook (Grossman), individual profiles and interviews in periodical publications, and the recently widely revived newspaper obituary column (Starck). Adult and community education organisations run short courses on researching and writing auto/biographical forms and, across Western countries, the family history/genealogy sections of many local, state, and national libraries have been upgraded to meet the increasing demand for these services. Academically, journals and e-mail discussion lists have been established on the topics of biography and autobiography, and North American, British, and Australian universities offer undergraduate and postgraduate courses in life writing. The commonly aired wisdom is that published life writing in its many text-based forms (biography, autobiography, memoir, diaries, and collections of personal letters) is enjoying unprecedented popularity. It is our purpose to examine this proposition. Methodological problems There are a number of problems involved in investigating genre popularity, growth, and decline in publishing. Firstly, it is not easy to gain access to detailed statistics, which are usually only available within the industry. Secondly, it is difficult to ascertain how publishing statistics are gathered and what they report (Eliot). There is the question of whether bestselling booklists reflect actual book sales or are manipulated marketing tools (Miller), although the move from surveys of booksellers to electronic reporting at point of sale in new publishing lists such as BookScan will hopefully obviate this problem. Thirdly, some publishing lists categorise by subject and form, some by subject only, and some do not categorise at all. This means that in any analysis of these statistics, a decision has to be made whether to use the publishing list’s system or impose a different mode. If the publishing list is taken at face value, the question arises of whether to use categorisation by form or by subject. Fourthly, there is the bedeviling issue of terminology. Traditionally, there reigned a simple dualism in the terminology applied to forms of telling the true story of an actual life: biography and autobiography. Publishing lists that categorise their books, such as BookScan, have retained it. But with postmodern recognition of the presence of the biographer in a biography and of the presence of other subjects in an autobiography, the dichotomy proves false. There is the further problem of how to categorise memoirs, diaries, and letters. In the academic arena, the term “life writing” has emerged to describe the field as a whole. Within the genre of life writing, there are, however, still recognised sub-genres. Academic definitions vary, but generally a biography is understood to be a scholarly study of a subject who is not the writer; an autobiography is the story of a entire life written by its subject; while a memoir is a segment or particular focus of that life told, again, by its own subject. These terms are, however, often used interchangeably even by significant institutions such the USA Library of Congress, which utilises the term “biography” for all. Different commentators also use differing definitions. Hamilton uses the term “biography” to include all forms of life writing. Donaldson discusses how the term has been co-opted to include biographies of place such as Peter Ackroyd’s London: The Biography (2000) and of things such as Lizzie Collingham’s Curry: A Biography (2005). This reflects, of course, a writing/publishing world in which non-fiction stories of places, creatures, and even foodstuffs are called biographies, presumably in the belief that this will make them more saleable. The situation is further complicated by the emergence of hybrid publishing forms such as, for instance, the “memoir-with-recipes” or “food memoir” (Brien, Rutherford and Williamson). Are such books to be classified as autobiography or put in the “cookery/food & drink” category? We mention in passing the further confusion caused by novels with a subtitle of The Biography such as Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. The fifth methodological problem that needs to be mentioned is the increasing globalisation of the publishing industry, which raises questions about the validity of the majority of studies available (including those cited herein) which are nationally based. Whether book sales reflect what is actually read (and by whom), raises of course another set of questions altogether. Methodology In our exploration, we were fundamentally concerned with two questions. Is life writing as popular as claimed? And, if it is, is this a new phenomenon? To answer these questions, we examined a range of available sources. We began with the non-fiction bestseller lists in Publishers Weekly (a respected American trade magazine aimed at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents that claims to be international in scope) from their inception in 1912 to the present time. We hoped that this data could provide a longitudinal perspective. The term bestseller was coined by Publishers Weekly when it began publishing its lists in 1912; although the first list of popular American books actually appeared in The Bookman (New York) in 1895, based itself on lists appearing in London’s The Bookman since 1891 (Bassett and Walter 206). The Publishers Weekly lists are the best source of longitudinal information as the currently widely cited New York Times listings did not appear till 1942, with the Wall Street Journal a late entry into the field in 1994. We then examined a number of sources of more recent statistics. We looked at the bestseller lists from the USA-based Amazon.com online bookseller; recent research on bestsellers in Britain; and lists from Nielsen BookScan Australia, which claims to tally some 85% or more of books sold in Australia, wherever they are published. In addition to the reservations expressed above, caveats must be aired in relation to these sources. While Publishers Weekly claims to be an international publication, it largely reflects the North American publishing scene and especially that of the USA. Although available internationally, Amazon.com also has its own national sites—such as Amazon.co.uk—not considered here. It also caters to a “specific computer-literate, credit-able clientele” (Gutjahr: 219) and has an unashamedly commercial focus, within which all the information generated must be considered. In our analysis of the material studied, we will use “life writing” as a genre term. When it comes to analysis of the lists, we have broken down the genre of life writing into biography and autobiography, incorporating memoir, letters, and diaries under autobiography. This is consistent with the use of the terminology in BookScan. Although we have broken down the genre in this way, it is the overall picture with regard to life writing that is our concern. It is beyond the scope of this paper to offer a detailed analysis of whether, within life writing, further distinctions should be drawn. Publishers Weekly: 1912 to 2006 1912 saw the first list of the 10 bestselling non-fiction titles in Publishers Weekly. It featured two life writing texts, being headed by an autobiography, The Promised Land by Russian Jewish immigrant Mary Antin, and concluding with Albert Bigelow Paine’s six-volume biography, Mark Twain. The Publishers Weekly lists do not categorise non-fiction titles by either form or subject, so the classifications below are our own with memoir classified as autobiography. In a decade-by-decade tally of these listings, there were 3 biographies and 20 autobiographies in the lists between 1912 and 1919; 24 biographies and 21 autobiographies in the 1920s; 13 biographies and 40 autobiographies in the 1930s; 8 biographies and 46 biographies in the 1940s; 4 biographies and 14 autobiographies in the 1950s; 11 biographies and 13 autobiographies in the 1960s; 6 biographies and 11 autobiographies in the 1970s; 3 biographies and 19 autobiographies in the 1980s; 5 biographies and 17 autobiographies in the 1990s; and 2 biographies and 7 autobiographies from 2000 up until the end of 2006. See Appendix 1 for the relevant titles and authors. Breaking down the most recent figures for 1990–2006, we find a not radically different range of figures and trends across years in the contemporary environment. The validity of looking only at the top ten books sold in any year is, of course, questionable, as are all the issues regarding sources discussed above. But one thing is certain in terms of our inquiry. There is no upwards curve obvious here. If anything, the decade break-down suggests that sales are trending downwards. This is in keeping with the findings of Michael Korda, in his history of twentieth-century bestsellers. He suggests a consistent longitudinal picture across all genres: In every decade, from 1900 to the end of the twentieth century, people have been reliably attracted to the same kind of books […] Certain kinds of popular fiction always do well, as do diet books […] self-help books, celebrity memoirs, sensationalist scientific or religious speculation, stories about pets, medical advice (particularly on the subjects of sex, longevity, and child rearing), folksy wisdom and/or humour, and the American Civil War (xvii). Amazon.com since 2000 The USA-based Amazon.com online bookselling site provides listings of its own top 50 bestsellers since 2000, although only the top 14 bestsellers are recorded for 2001. As fiction and non-fiction are not separated out on these lists and no genre categories are specified, we have again made our own decisions about what books fall into the category of life writing. Generally, we erred on the side of inclusion. (See Appendix 2.) However, when it came to books dealing with political events, we excluded books dealing with specific aspects of political practice/policy. This meant excluding books on, for instance, George Bush’s so-called ‘war on terror,’ of which there were a number of bestsellers listed. In summary, these listings reveal that of the top 364 books sold by Amazon from 2000 to 2007, 46 (or some 12.6%) were, according to our judgment, either biographical or autobiographical texts. This is not far from the 10% of the 1912 Publishers Weekly listing, although, as above, the proportion of bestsellers that can be classified as life writing varied dramatically from year to year, with no discernible pattern of peaks and troughs. This proportion tallied to 4% auto/biographies in 2000, 14% in 2001, 10% in 2002, 18% in 2003 and 2004, 4% in 2005, 14% in 2006 and 20% in 2007. This could suggest a rising trend, although it does not offer any consistent trend data to suggest sales figures may either continue to grow, or fall again, in 2008 or afterwards. Looking at the particular texts in these lists (see Appendix 2) also suggests that there is no general trend in the popularity of life writing in relation to other genres. For instance, in these listings in Amazon.com, life writing texts only rarely figure in the top 10 books sold in any year. So rarely indeed, that from 2001 there were only five in this category. In 2001, John Adams by David McCullough was the best selling book of the year; in 2003, Hillary Clinton’s autobiographical Living History was 7th; in 2004, My Life by Bill Clinton reached number 1; in 2006, Nora Ephron’s I Feel Bad About My Neck: and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman was 9th; and in 2007, Ishmael Beah’s discredited A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier came in at 8th. Apart from McCulloch’s biography of Adams, all the above are autobiographical texts, while the focus on leading political figures is notable. Britain: Feather and Woodbridge With regard to the British situation, we did not have actual lists and relied on recent analysis. John Feather and Hazel Woodbridge find considerably higher levels for life writing in Britain than above with, from 1998 to 2005, 28% of British published non-fiction comprising autobiography, while 8% of hardback and 5% of paperback non-fiction was biography (2007). Furthermore, although Feather and Woodbridge agree with commentators that life writing is currently popular, they do not agree that this is a growth state, finding the popularity of life writing “essentially unchanged” since their previous study, which covered 1979 to the early 1990s (Feather and Reid). Australia: Nielsen BookScan 2006 and 2007 In the Australian publishing industry, where producing books remains an ‘expensive, risky endeavour which is increasingly market driven’ (Galligan 36) and ‘an inherently complex activity’ (Carter and Galligan 4), the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics figures reveal that the total numbers of books sold in Australia has remained relatively static over the past decade (130.6 million in the financial year 1995–96 and 128.8 million in 2003–04) (ABS). During this time, however, sales volumes of non-fiction publications have grown markedly, with a trend towards “non-fiction, mass market and predictable” books (Corporall 41) resulting in general non-fiction sales in 2003–2004 outselling general fiction by factors as high as ten depending on the format—hard- or paperback, and trade or mass market paperback (ABS 2005). However, while non-fiction has increased in popularity in Australia, the same does not seem to hold true for life writing. Here, in utilising data for the top 5,000 selling non-fiction books in both 2006 and 2007, we are relying on Nielsen BookScan’s categorisation of texts as either biography or autobiography. In 2006, no works of life writing made the top 10 books sold in Australia. In looking at the top 100 books sold for 2006, in some cases the subjects of these works vary markedly from those extracted from the Amazon.com listings. In Australia in 2006, life writing makes its first appearance at number 14 with convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby’s My Story. This is followed by another My Story at 25, this time by retired Australian army chief, Peter Cosgrove. Jonestown: The Power and Myth of Alan Jones comes in at 34 for the Australian broadcaster’s biographer Chris Masters; the biography, The Innocent Man by John Grisham at 38 and Li Cunxin’s autobiographical Mao’s Last Dancer at 45. Australian Susan Duncan’s memoir of coping with personal loss, Salvation Creek: An Unexpected Life makes 50; bestselling USA travel writer Bill Bryson’s autobiographical memoir of his childhood The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid 69; Mandela: The Authorised Portrait by Rosalind Coward, 79; and Joanne Lees’s memoir of dealing with her kidnapping, the murder of her partner and the justice system in Australia’s Northern Territory, No Turning Back, 89. These books reveal a market preference for autobiographical writing, and an almost even split between Australian and overseas subjects in 2006. 2007 similarly saw no life writing in the top 10. The books in the top 100 sales reveal a downward trend, with fewer titles making this band overall. In 2007, Terri Irwin’s memoir of life with her famous husband, wildlife warrior Steve Irwin, My Steve, came in at number 26; musician Andrew Johns’s memoir of mental illness, The Two of Me, at 37; Ayaan Hirst Ali’s autobiography Infidel at 39; John Grogan’s biography/memoir, Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog, at 42; Sally Collings’s biography of the inspirational young survivor Sophie Delezio, Sophie’s Journey, at 51; and Elizabeth Gilbert’s hybrid food, self-help and travel memoir, Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything at 82. Mao’s Last Dancer, published the year before, remained in the top 100 in 2007 at 87. When moving to a consideration of the top 5,000 books sold in Australia in 2006, BookScan reveals only 62 books categorised as life writing in the top 1,000, and only 222 in the top 5,000 (with 34 titles between 1,000 and 1,999, 45 between 2,000 and 2,999, 48 between 3,000 and 3,999, and 33 between 4,000 and 5,000). 2007 shows a similar total of 235 life writing texts in the top 5,000 bestselling books (75 titles in the first 1,000, 27 between 1,000 and 1,999, 51 between 2,000 and 2,999, 39 between 3,000 and 3,999, and 43 between 4,000 and 5,000). In both years, 2006 and 2007, life writing thus not only constituted only some 4% of the bestselling 5,000 titles in Australia, it also showed only minimal change between these years and, therefore, no significant growth. Conclusions Our investigation using various instruments that claim to reflect levels of book sales reveals that Western readers’ willingness to purchase published life writing has not changed significantly over the past century. We find no evidence of either a short, or longer, term growth or boom in sales in such books. Instead, it appears that what has been widely heralded as a new golden age of life writing may well be more the result of an expanded understanding of what is included in the genre than an increased interest in it by either book readers or publishers. What recent years do appear to have seen, however, is a significantly increased interest by public commentators, critics, and academics in this genre of writing. We have also discovered that the issue of our current obsession with the lives of others tends to be discussed in academic as well as popular fora as if what applies to one sub-genre or production form applies to another: if biography is popular, then autobiography will also be, and vice versa. If reality television programming is attracting viewers, then readers will be flocking to life writing as well. Our investigation reveals that such propositions are questionable, and that there is significant research to be completed in mapping such audiences against each other. This work has also highlighted the difficulty of separating out the categories of written texts in publishing studies, firstly in terms of determining what falls within the category of life writing as distinct from other forms of non-fiction (the hybrid problem) and, secondly, in terms of separating out the categories within life writing. Although we have continued to use the terms biography and autobiography as sub-genres, we are aware that they are less useful as descriptors than they are often assumed to be. In order to obtain a more complete and accurate picture, publishing categories may need to be agreed upon, redefined and utilised across the publishing industry and within academia. This is of particular importance in the light of the suggestions (from total sales volumes) that the audiences for books are limited, and therefore the rise of one sub-genre may be directly responsible for the fall of another. Bair argues, for example, that in the 1980s and 1990s, the popularity of what she categorises as memoir had direct repercussions on the numbers of birth-to-death biographies that were commissioned, contracted, and published as “sales and marketing staffs conclude[d] that readers don’t want a full-scale life any more” (17). Finally, although we have highlighted the difficulty of using publishing statistics when there is no common understanding as to what such data is reporting, we hope this study shows that the utilisation of such material does add a depth to such enquiries, especially in interrogating the anecdotal evidence that is often quoted as data in publishing and other studies. Appendix 1 Publishers Weekly listings 1990–1999 1990 included two autobiographies, Bo Knows Bo by professional athlete Bo Jackson (with Dick Schaap) and Ronald Reagan’s An America Life: An Autobiography. In 1991, there were further examples of life writing with unimaginative titles, Me: Stories of My Life by Katherine Hepburn, Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography by Kitty Kelley, and Under Fire: An American Story by Oliver North with William Novak; as indeed there were again in 1992 with It Doesn’t Take a Hero: The Autobiography of Norman Schwarzkopf, Sam Walton: Made in America, the autobiography of the founder of Wal-Mart, Diana: Her True Story by Andrew Morton, Every Living Thing, yet another veterinary outpouring from James Herriot, and Truman by David McCullough. In 1993, radio shock-jock Howard Stern was successful with the autobiographical Private Parts, as was Betty Eadie with her detailed recounting of her alleged near-death experience, Embraced by the Light. Eadie’s book remained on the list in 1994 next to Don’t Stand too Close to a Naked Man, comedian Tim Allen’s autobiography. Flag-waving titles continue in 1995 with Colin Powell’s My American Journey, and Miss America, Howard Stern’s follow-up to Private Parts. 1996 saw two autobiographical works, basketball superstar Dennis Rodman’s Bad as I Wanna Be and figure-skater, Ekaterina Gordeeva’s (with EM Swift) My Sergei: A Love Story. In 1997, Diana: Her True Story returns to the top 10, joining Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes and prolific biographer Kitty Kelly’s The Royals, while in 1998, there is only the part-autobiography, part travel-writing A Pirate Looks at Fifty, by musician Jimmy Buffet. There is no biography or autobiography included in either the 1999 or 2000 top 10 lists in Publishers Weekly, nor in that for 2005. In 2001, David McCullough’s biography John Adams and Jack Welch’s business memoir Jack: Straight from the Gut featured. In 2002, Let’s Roll! Lisa Beamer’s tribute to her husband, one of the heroes of 9/11, written with Ken Abraham, joined Rudolph Giuliani’s autobiography, Leadership. 2003 saw Hillary Clinton’s autobiography Living History and Paul Burrell’s memoir of his time as Princess Diana’s butler, A Royal Duty, on the list. In 2004, it was Bill Clinton’s turn with My Life. In 2006, we find John Grisham’s true crime (arguably a biography), The Innocent Man, at the top, Grogan’s Marley and Me at number three, and the autobiographical The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama in fourth place. Appendix 2 Amazon.com listings since 2000 In 2000, there were only two auto/biographies in the top Amazon 50 bestsellers with Lance Armstrong’s It’s Not about the Bike: My Journey Back to Life about his battle with cancer at 20, and Dave Eggers’s self-consciously fictionalised memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius at 32. In 2001, only the top 14 bestsellers were recorded. At number 1 is John Adams by David McCullough and, at 11, Jack: Straight from the Gut by USA golfer Jack Welch. In 2002, Leadership by Rudolph Giuliani was at 12; Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro at 29; Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper by Patricia Cornwell at 42; Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative by David Brock at 48; and Louis Gerstner’s autobiographical Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance: Inside IBM’s Historic Turnaround at 50. In 2003, Living History by Hillary Clinton was 7th; Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson 14th; Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How President Bill Clinton Endangered America’s Long-Term National Security by Robert Patterson 20th; Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer 32nd; Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor of Jordan 33rd; Kate Remembered, Scott Berg’s biography of Katharine Hepburn, 37th; Who’s your Caddy?: Looping for the Great, Near Great and Reprobates of Golf by Rick Reilly 39th; The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship about a winning baseball team by David Halberstam 42nd; and Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong 49th. In 2004, My Life by Bill Clinton was the best selling book of the year; American Soldier by General Tommy Franks was 16th; Kevin Phillips’s American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush 18th; Timothy Russert’s Big Russ and Me: Father and Son. Lessons of Life 20th; Tony Hendra’s Father Joe: The Man who Saved my Soul 23rd; Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton 27th; Cokie Roberts’s Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised our Nation 31st; Kitty Kelley’s The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty 42nd; and Chronicles, Volume 1 by Bob Dylan was 43rd. In 2005, auto/biographical texts were well down the list with only The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion at 45 and The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeanette Walls at 49. In 2006, there was a resurgence of life writing with Nora Ephron’s I Feel Bad About My Neck: and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman at 9; Grisham’s The Innocent Man at 12; Bill Buford’s food memoir Heat: an Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany at 23; more food writing with Julia Child’s My Life in France at 29; Immaculée Ilibagiza’s Left to Tell: Discovering God amidst the Rwandan Holocaust at 30; CNN anchor Anderson Cooper’s Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters and Survival at 43; and Isabella Hatkoff’s Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship (between a baby hippo and a giant tortoise) at 44. In 2007, Ishmael Beah’s discredited A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier came in at 8; Walter Isaacson’s Einstein: His Life and Universe 13; Ayaan Hirst Ali’s autobiography of her life in Muslim society, Infidel, 18; The Reagan Diaries 25; Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI 29; Mother Teresa: Come be my Light 36; Clapton: The Autobiography 40; Tina Brown’s The Diana Chronicles 45; Tony Dungy’s Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices & Priorities of a Winning Life 47; and Daniel Tammet’s Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant at 49. Acknowledgements A sincere thank you to Michael Webster at RMIT for assistance with access to Nielsen BookScan statistics, and to the reviewers of this article for their insightful comments. Any errors are, of course, our own. References Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC). “About Us.” Australian Story 2008. 1 June 2008. ‹http://www.abc.net.au/austory/aboutus.htm>. 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