Joseph Mulligan (Weber State University)
Throughout the nineteenth, twentieth and into the twenty-first century, authoritarianism has proven to be an enduring leadership style in Latin American and has manifested in diverse forms, including the uprisings of regional caudillos, the ascendency of personalist rulers, the formation of solemn cults of personality, the imposition of military dictatorships, the establishment of single-party States, the totalitarian perpetuation of the state of exception, the cultural promotion of ethnonationalism, and the installation of illiberal technocracies, among others. Equally enduring, similarly diverse, and no less prolific has been the production and dissemination of representations of authoritarian rule in such political forms as propaganda campaigns, censorship practices, and political theater as well as in such literary forms as manifestos, poetry of resistance, reportage, and – iconically – the parodic dictator novel. At the intersection of literature, intellectual history, and the sociology of cultural forms, this panel invites interdisciplinary papers that explore how the strategies deployed by authoritarian ideologists and/or antiauthoritarian authors adapt to the challenges of their time and, informed by regimes of the past and their corresponding representations, update their strategies to meet the needs of the present. Panelists are encouraged to offer fresh perspectives on well-known regimes and literary works as well as to break new ground on lesser-known works and regimes that have not received adequate critical attention.