"Life on Wheels: Disability, Masculinity and the Aesthetics of Political Inclusion in Pedro Almodóvar's Live Flesh (Carne trémula)"

a presentation by

Julie Avril Minich

Thursday, April 7, 2005
Conference Room, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (240-201), 4:00-6:00 PM

Reading: Draft version of "Life on Wheels: Disability, Masculinity and the Aesthetics of Political Inclusion in Pedro Almodóvar's Live Flesh (Carne trémula)"

Abstract: Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar, best known in the United States for films like All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre) and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios), has received a great deal of critical attention for the treatment of anti-normative gender and sexual identities in his work. Less discussed, however, is the way his work makes a case for political alliances between women, LGBT communities and other groups marginalized in the social and political landscape of contemporary Spain. This talk pays close attention to the representation of disability in Almodóvar's 1997 film Live Flesh (Carne trémula), an aspect of the film that has thus far not received sustained analysis. It thereby makes visible a political critique and a vision for solidarity among diverse social identities not usually attributed to Almodóvar's work. As a result, this new interpretation of the film promotes a theoretical approach to identity that emphasizes the crucial role of alliances and coalitions in contesting a social environment that fosters oppression.

Julie Minich is a third-year Doctoral Student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese specializing in contemporary Chicana/o literature. Her additional research interests include feminist theory, LGBT studies, disability studies and film.