Dracula as Inter-American Film Icon: Universal Pictures and Cinematográfica ABSA
Abstract
My essay explores the vampire cinema of Hollywood and Mexico. In particular, I trace the relationship between Universal Pictures as the progenitor of horror during the Great Depression and Cinematográfica ABSA's "mexploitation" practices. The latter resulted in the first vampire film in Latin America--"El vampiro" (1957). Rather than strengthening separatist national cinemas, the unintended consequences of genre film production make this a case of inter-American scope.
Keywords
Dracula; Hemispheric; Inter-American; Cinema; mexploitation
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University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA, USA United States
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1896-4767
Antonio Barrenechea is a professor of literature of the Americas and cinema. He is the author of America Unbound: Encyclopedic Literature and Hemispheric Studies (University of New Mexico Press, 2016), which brings together comparative literature and hemispheric studies by tracing New World historical imaginaries in prodigious novels from the United States, Latin America, and Francophone Canada. He is also co-editor of “Hemispheric Indigenous Studies,” a special issue of Comparative American Studies (2013) that calls for a trans-American frame for indigenous history and culture. Over the past fifteen years, Dr. Barrenechea has contributed articles and reviews to Comparative Literature, Revista Iberoamericana, American Literature, and other venues, including the American Comparative Literature Association’s “state-of-the-discipline” report. The forthcoming “Hemispheric Studies Beyond Suspicion” was awarded the 2014-2016 prize for the best essay by the International Association of Inter-American Studies. Following upon a 2016-2017 fellowship at the Institut Américain Universitaire in France, Dr. Barrenechea’s recent work is on the relation between trash culture and analog cinema as produced in the fringes of North and South American film capitals. He also conducts ongoing research on the intellectual history of the literature of the Americas, particularly its international pioneering waves, and its contemporary manifestations in U.S. academia. Dr. Barrenechea presently serves on the boards of the International American Studies Association, the International Association of Inter-American Studies, and Comparative American Studies.
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