This year, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese’s Latin American and Iberian Colloquium series is featuring the work of several Ph D students. According to this year’s coordinators, the idea is to both showcase the research being done by the department’s students and to workshop a portion of a chapter from their dissertation. The papers will be circulating about a week in advance in order to give the audience a sense of the project and to allow them to give helpful and critical feedback to the presenter. The first of these presentations is scheduled for this Friday, January 30. Alicia Miklos will be presenting her paper, “Gender violence in the Nicaraguan Nota Roja: Myth, melodrama, and the polarization of gender difference”, from the second chapter of her dissertation.

 

The paper itself is a fascinating study of the discourse that certain Nicaraguan media, specifically the nota roja, is constructing around the topic of femicide. Miklos looks at the reporting on these crimes over the course of a six-month period. What she finds is disturbing. The way in which the nota roja treats this social phenomena is to ignore the socio-economic context of the installation of neoliberalism and the role of the state to present a decontextualized polarization of those involved as either “blameless victims” or “monstrous, uncontrolled psychopaths”. Miklos argues that we can read this representation as a part of the cultural mode of melodrama, a representational tactic that depends on and reproduces the very binary view of human relationships that hampers any creative, cultural work toward more effective solutions for patriarchal structure that has produced the violent masculinities that work almost invisibly to produce such violent acts. She finds it especially troubling the way in which these journalistic accounts of violence toward women rely on and exacerbate gender difference, thus discursively upholding inequality and oppressive systems.

 

We had the chance to chat with Alicia about her project and about her participation in the colloquium series. Here is what she told us:

 

I wanted to get valuable feedback about topics I bring up in my second chapter, such as media violence under neoliberalism, because these comments can help me to work out doubts I have for my introduction and conclusion. 

 

My project surveys representations of gender violence in contemporary Post-war Nicaragua. It consists of two main currents of analysis: 1) The new legal framework that punishes gender violence in contemporary Nicaragua, in the form of Law 779 the "Integral Law Against Violence towards Women". I analyze the language of the draft bill of the law, the law itself and the multiple (controversial) reforms and regulations that were applied to the law after it's passing in 2012. I will also examine the comments sections of the newspapers and some blogs to survey public opinion about gender violence and the new law. 2) Additionally, I include two chapters on journalistic and literary representations of femicide, with a focus on notions of criminality and victimhood under neoliberal social and political formations. 

 

I became interested in this topic after learning about the utopian visions of gender equality that flourished during the Sandinista revolution, but fell short of transforming gender relations due to the recalcitrance of the masculine leadership and the pressures of a U.S. backed war. When I traveled to Nicaragua I simultaneously learned about the energetic, militant autonomous feminist movement that arose after the defeat of the revolution and the prevalence of sexual abuse and intimate partner violence in the contemporary period. I became curious about this level of conflict and polarization in gender relations, especially considering the impetus towards liberation that was the legacy of the revolution. 

 

As a feminist, I'm concerned with the way imaginary, exaggerated images of gender difference are mobilized by corporate and political interests to divide, conquer, and commercialize us. I want to understand reactionary notions of femininity, masculinity, and romantic love that seem to reemerge strengthened under neoliberal social formations. I hope to analyze gender violence in this context, especially in regards to representational trends of fascination with (sexualized) death images in the news media, television, and popular culture, for example in the rise of the forensic crime drama, as well as the circulation of crime stories related to narco violence, human trafficking, and sexual violence.

 

I have thoroughly enjoyed the writing process. Watching the work I've done in the last few years come into form on the paper brings an incredible rush.

 

Currently I'm beginning my fourth and final chapter. All that's left is then is the introduction and the conclusion. My dissertation defense is set for April 17, 2015.

 

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Alicia’s presentation will take place this Friday, January 30 from 2:20-3:40 pm in Hagerty Hall 255. Attendance is open to the public. If you would like a copy of her work, please either email Alicia directly (miklos.13) or Graduate Student Colloquium Co-coordinator, Teddy Palomino (palomino.5). Several other Ph D students from the department will also be presenting their research throughout the semester. A tentative schedule, along with the titles of their talk, can be found here.