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Inscription and Subversion of the Road Movie in Inés de Oliveira Cézar’s Cassandra (2012)

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Book cover The Latin American Road Movie

Part of the book series: Global Cinema ((GLOBALCINE))

Abstract

This chapter claims that Inés de Oliveira Cézar’s Cassandra (Argentina, 2012) inscribes and subverts the generic conventions of the road movie, the female Bildungsroman, and even neorealism. While the road trip favors character development and female independence, the protagonist, a journalist whose job is to denounce the deforestation that deprives indigenous peoples of their ancestral lands in the Argentine northeast, does not turn out to be a successful journalist, since she becomes extremely aware of the limitations of language and representation. In this film, cultural critique is represented narratively and the deictic pointers typical of neorealism are ambiguous. Instead of the expected overt political messages denouncing the plight of indigenous peoples, Cassandra makes us to reflect upon the limitations of objective representation as well as the unfeasibility of speaking for the subaltern.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Spanish and Portuguese, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Cynthia Tompkins

Authors
  1. Cynthia Tompkins
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Spanish, The University of Kansas , Lawrence, Kansas, USA

    Verónica Garibotto

  2. University of Kansas , Lawrence, USA

    Jorge Pérez

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© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)

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Tompkins, C. (2016). Inscription and Subversion of the Road Movie in Inés de Oliveira Cézar’s Cassandra (2012). In: Garibotto, V., Pérez, J. (eds) The Latin American Road Movie. Global Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58093-1_13

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