Abstract

This dissertation examines the intersections between culture and the idea of democracy from 1968 to the present. I study the democratic transitions from perspectives of the global periphery by employing a comparative methodological approach to cultural studies. I argue that anti-authoritarian movements that surface in Mexico and Eastern Europe within the context of the Cold War converge in the consolidation of liberal democracy. This dissertation intervenes in the field of Latin American Studies from a transnational perspective that crosses geographic, cultural, and linguistic boundaries. I focus on understudied cultural texts related to the Mexican transition to democracy and trace patterns in Mexican intellectual history that emerge in networks of contact in the Soviet / post-Soviet cultural realm. In addition, this project traces the ways in which radical democratic proposals for systemic change become depoliticized with the onset of neoliberalism in both regions. Ultimately, my research contributes to the understanding the global dynamics of democratic transitions, the value of literary and cultural work in the study contemporary democracies, and the transnational debates about the relationship between politics and culture.

Committee Chair

Ignacio Sanchez Prado

Committee Members

William Acree, Ignacio Infante, Elzbieta Sklodowska, Lynne Tatlock,

Comments

Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/0prf-et56

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Author's Department

Romance Languages and Literature: Hispanic Studies

Author's School

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Document Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

Spring 5-15-2019

Language

English (en)

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Available for download on Monday, May 15, 2119

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