Michael Lazzara

EDUCATION AND DEGREE(S)

• Ph.D., Princeton University 

• B.A, University of Notre Dame

RESEARCH INTEREST(S)

• Contemporary Latin American Literature and Cultural Studies
• Literature, Culture, and Politics of the Southern Cone
• Revolutions, Dictatorships, Transitions to Democracy
• Memory Studies
• Human Rights
• Film Studies, particularly Documentary Film

COURSE(S) TAUGHT

• Spanish 100: Introduction to Critical Reading and Textual Analysis
• Spanish 170: Introduction to Latin American Culture
• Spanish 151: Introduction to Contemporary Latin American Literature
• Spanish 159: Latin American Identities: Utopias and Dystopias
• Spanish 172: Latin American Documentary Film
• Spanish 175: Speaking Truth to Power: Testimonial Literature in Latin America
• Spanish 175: Chile and Argentina since the 1960s
• Spanish 182: The Art of Literary Translation: A Workshop
• Spanish 175/175S: Human Rights, Memory, and Democracy in Chile (taught annually for Summer Abroad in Santiago, Chile)
• Human Rights 161: Human Rights in Latin America
• Human Rights 130: The Politics of Memory in Latin America: Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation
• Spanish 274: Testimonio: Theory and Praxis
• Spanish 274: Chile, 50 Years after the Coup: Politics, Aesthetics, Memories
• Spanish 274: Latin American Documentary: From "Third Cinema" to the "Subjective Turn"
• Spanish 274: Critical Directions in Memory Studies
• Cultural Studies 210/Human Rights 200B: Memory, Culture, and Human Rights

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS AND SPECIAL ISSUES

• Diamela Eltit: Essays on Chilean Literature, Politics, and Culture. Edited by Michael J. Lazzara, Mónica Barrientos, and María Rosa Olivera-Williams. Translated by Michael J. Lazzara, Catherine Brix, Carl Fischer, and Sowmya Ramanathan. Latin American Research Commons, LASA, 2023.
• Los futuros de la memoria en América Latina: Sujetos, políticas y epistemologías en disputa. Co-edited with Fernando A. Blanco. University of North Carolina Press/ A Contracorriente Press, 2023.
• Obediencia civil: Complicidad y complacencia en Chile desde Pinochet. Translated by Marisol Vera. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Cuarto Propio, 2023.
• The Surrendered: Reflections by a Son of Shining Path, by José Carlos Agüero. Co-edited and translated with Charles F. Walker. Duke University Press, 2021.
• Civil Obedience: Complicity and Complacency in Chile since Pinochet. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2018. Published in the “Critical Human Rights” series, co-edited by Steve J. Stern and Scott Straus.
• Latin American Documentary Film in the New Millennium. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. Co-edited with María Guadalupe Arenillas.
• Special Issue of Radical History Review 124 (January 2016): “The Other 9/11: Chile, 1973—Memory, Resistance, and Democratization.” Co-edited with Alicia del Campo, Heidi Tinsman, and Angela Vergara.
• Special Issue of A contracorriente: A Journal on Social History and Literature in Latin America 12.1 (Fall 2014): “La performance del archivo: re imaginar memoria e historia en América Latina.” Co-edited with Fernando A. Blanco and Wolfgang Bongers.
• Luz Arce and Pinochet’s Chile: Testimony in the Aftermath of State Violence. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Foreword by Jean Franco.
• Telling Ruins in Latin America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Co-edited with Vicky Unruh.
• Luz Arce: Después del infierno. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Cuarto Propio, 2008.
• Prismas de la memoria: Narración y trauma en la transición chilena. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Cuarto Propio, 2008.
• Chile in Transition: The Poetics and Politics of Memory. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006.
• Carmen's Rust: A translation with introduction of Ana María del Río's novel Óxido de Carmen. New York: The Overlook Press, 2003.
• Los años de silencio: Conversaciones con narradores chilenos que escribieron bajo dictadura. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Cuarto Propio, 2002.
• Diamela Eltit: Conversación en Princeton. Princeton University: Program in Latin American Studies, 2002.

CURRENT PROJECTS

• A monographic study titled Desobedientes: Memory and Responsibility in Narratives by Children of Perpetrators of Political Violence in Latin America (in progress).
• How the Military Remembers: Human Rights and Countermemories in Latin America. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Co-edited with Cynthia E. Milton (forthcoming in 2025).

SELECT ARTICLES

• Lazzara, Michael J: “Nostalgia de Referencias Críticas.” In Justo Alarcón Reyes, Juan Camilo Lorca, and Juan Villegas Morales eds., Sección Referencias Críticas: Biblioteca Nacional de Chile (1968-2000). Irvine, CA: Ediciones digitales de Gestos, 143-147. 2023.
• Lazzara, Michael J, Catherine M. Brix, Carl Fischer, and Sowmya Ramanathan: “Chile through the Lens of Diamela Eltit: Prisms of Literature, Politics, and Culture.” In Michael J. Lazzara, Mónica Barrientos, and María Rosa Olivera Williams eds., Diamela Eltit: Essays on Chilean Literature, Politics, and Culture. Latin American Research Commons, 1-18. 2023.
• Lazzara, Michael J: “Prólogo. El Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi: Sitio arqueológico de la transición chilena.” In Ximena Faúndez Abarca, Daniel Rebolledo Hernández, Christian Sánchez Ponce, and Omar Sagredo Mazuela eds., Lugares de memoria y sitios de conciencia: construyendo patrimonio y memoria para la acción en derechos humanos. Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile/Friedrich Ebert Stiftung/ Villa Grimaldi Corporación Parque por la Paz, 25-38. 2022.
• Lazzara, Michael J: “Sujetos implicados del Chile neoliberal: Sobre El tío de Matías Iribarren y No de Pablo Larraín.” In Florencia Garramuño, Héctor Hoyos, and Romina Wainberg eds., Sujetos del latinoamericanismo. Pittsburgh: Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana, Serie Nueva América, 187-209. 2022.
• Lazzara, Michael J: “The Pinochet Era, 1973-1990.” In Jonathan B. Monroe ed., Roberto Bolaño in Context. Cambridge University Press, 33-45. 2022.
• Lazzara, Michael J: “A Conversation with José Carlos Agüero.” In José Carlos Agüero, The Surrendered: Reflections by a Son of Shining Path. Duke University Press, 108-130. 2021.
• Lazzara, Michael J: “Introduction” to Memory and Autobiography: Explorations at the Limits, by Leonor Arfuch. London: Polity, viii-xvii. 2021.
• Lazzara, Michael J: “Retazos de la memoria.” In Ricardo Fuentealba Rivera, Fuentealba 1973. Pehuén Editores, 8-11. 2021.
• Lazzara, Michael J: “Nota introductoria a la Primera Parte: ‘Los futuros de la memoria'.” In Fernando A. Blanco and Cristián Opazo eds., Democracias incompletas: debates críticos en el Cono Sur. Editorial Cuarto Propio, 23-29. 2021.
• “Retazos de la memoria.” In Ricardo Fuentealba Fabio and Rodrigo Araya Tacussis eds., Fuentealba 1973 (Santiago: Editorial Pehuén, 2018).
• “Memory Parks.” In Ricardo Vinyes ed., Historical Dictionary of Concepts, Expressions, and Uses of Collective Memory (Gedisa Editorial/University of Barcelona, 2018).
• “The Memory Turn.” In Juan Poblete ed., New Approaches to Latin American Studies: Culture and Power (New York: Routledge, 2017).
• “Globalization and Documentary Film: Luso-Hispanic Reflections.” In Robert Patrick Newcomb and Richard A. Gordon eds., Beyond Tordesillas: New Approaches to Comparative Luso-Hispanic Studies (Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2017).
• “Complicity and Responsibility in the Aftermath of the Pinochet Regime: The Case of ‘El Mocito.’” In Rúbrica contemporánea 5.9 (Autonomous University of Barcelona, 2017).
• “What Remains of Third Cinema?” In María Guadalupe Arenillas and Michael J. Lazzara eds., Latin American Documentary Film in the New Millennium (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).
• “Pensar entre épocas: escrituras de vidas y transformación subjetiva en el Chile post-Pinochet.” (reprint) In Nuestra América: Revista de estudios sobre la Cultura Latinoamericana 10 (Universidade Fernando Pessoa, Porto, Portugal, January-July 2016).
• “Writing Complicity: The Case of Mariana Callejas.” In Radical History Review 124 (Duke University Press, January 2016).
• “Performances—Memory, Monuments.” In Ileana Rodríguez and Mónica Szurmuk eds., The Cambridge History of Latin American Women’s Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016).
• “El fenómeno mocito (Las puestas en escena de un sujeto cómplice).” In A contracorriente: A Journal on Social History and Literature in Latin America 12.1 (Fall 2014).
• “Pensar entre épocas: escrituras de vidas y transformación subjetiva en el Chile post-Pinochet.” In Cuadernos de literature 37.XVIII (2014).
• “Aproximación al pensamiento crítico de Nelly Richard: fundamentos y debates de (y con) la crítica cultural.” Taller de letras 54 (2014).
• “Kidnapped Memories: Argentina’s Stolen Children Tell Their Stories.” Journal of Human Rights 12.3 (July-September 2013).
• “Radiografía del pinochetismo: una conversación con la documentalista Marcela Said.” In Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana 42.1 (May 2013).
• “Diamela Eltit.” In Will H. Corral, Juan DeCastro, and Nicholas Birns eds., The Contemporary Spanish-American Novel: Bolaño and After (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013).
• “Violencia, memoria, justicia: una entrevista a Pilar Calveiro.” In A contracorriente: A Journal on Social History and Literature in Latin America 10.2 (Winter 2013). Co-authored with Mónica Szurmuk and María Rosa Olivera-Williams.
• “Militancy Then and Now: A Conversation with Carmen Castillo.” In Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies21.1 (March 2012).
• “Remembering Revolution after Ruin and Genocide: Recent Chilean Documentary Films and the Writing of History.” In Kristi M. Wilson and Tomás F. Crowder-Taraborelli eds. Film and Genocide (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2012). “Dos propuestas de conmemoración pública: Londres 38 y El Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (Santiago de Chile).” In A contracorriente: A Journal on Social History and Literature in Latin America 8.3 (Spring 2011).
• “Justice and its Remainders: Diamela Eltit’s Puño y letra.” In Francesca Lessa and Vincent Druliolle eds., The Memory of State Terrorism in the Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
• “Guzmán’s Allende.” In Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana 38.2 (November 2009).
• “Filming Loss: (Post-)Memory, Subjectivity, and the Performance of Failure in Recent Argentine Documentary Films.” In Latin American Perspectives 36.5 (2009).
• “Estrategias de dominación y resistencia corporales: las biopolíticas del mercado en Mano de obra, de Diamela Eltit.” In Rubí Carreño ed., Eltit: redes locales/globales (Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/Vervuert Verlag, 2009).
• “Pinochet’s Cadaver as Ruin and Palimpsest.” In Michael J. Lazzara and Vicky Unruh eds., Telling Ruins in Latin America (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
• “Crítica cultural.” In Robert McKee Irwin and Mónica Szurmuk eds., Diccionario de estudios culturales (México: Instituto Mora, 2009).
• “Hacia una delimitación del cine documental como género: una conversación con Andrés Di Tella.” In Brújula 6.1 (2007).
• “The Poetics of Impossibility: Diamela Eltit's El padre mío.” In Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana 35.1 (May 2006).
• “Luz Arce: militancia, colaboración, perdón (palabras desde la zona gris).” In Revista de crítica cultural 32 (November 2005).
• “Miradas políticas, miradas estéticas: un diálogo con Diamela Eltit.” In Brújula 4.1 (2005).
• “Tres recorridos de Villa Grimaldi.” In Elizabeth Jelin and Victoria Langland eds., Monumentos, memoriales y marcas territoriales (Madrid/Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI Editores, 2003).