Date of Award
Spring 5-15-2019
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Type
Dissertation
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.
Language
English (en)
Chair and Committee
Ignacio Sanchez Prado
Committee Members
William Acree, Ignacio Infante, Elzbieta Sklodowska, Lynne Tatlock,
Recommended Citation
Lechkova, Dorotea, "Visions of Democracy: Culture and Transition in Mexico and post-Soviet Eastern Europe" (2019). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1873.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/1873
Included in
Eastern European Studies Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, Latin American Languages and Societies Commons, Latin American Literature Commons, Latin American Studies Commons, Slavic Languages and Societies Commons, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Commons
Comments
Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/0prf-et56