What Do I Read Next?
Widows, a novel written by Dorfman in 1981, was later transformed into a play with the same title. The story revolves around thirty-seven women who suspect that their missing husbands have been kidnapped and murdered by their government. To avoid censorship, Dorfman initially set the novel in 1940s occupied Greece but relocated the setting to Chile for the stage adaptation. The novel explores the struggle for justice under an oppressive regime, offering an intriguing contrast to Death and the Maiden.
How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic is an early critical work by Dorfman. It argues that popular literature, such as comic books, has historically been used to propagate capitalist ideology and promote passivity, particularly to benefit American business interests in Latin America.
La casa de los espiritus (1982) is the debut novel by Isabel Allende, now a globally renowned Hispanic author. Allende's father was a first cousin of Chilean President Salvador Allende. The novel, translated by Magda Bogin as The House of the Spirits and published by Knopf in 1985, reflects Allende's experiences helping people escape military repression after Pinochet's coup. She said the events she witnessed, "the dead, the tortured, the widows and orphans, left an unforgettable impression on my memory," and these experiences are woven into the novel.
Allende: A Novel, written by Fernando Alegria, is a biographical novel about Salvador Allende. It demonstrates "how fiction and history occasionally collide, then merge, enriching and refining each other."
Chilean Writers in Exile: Eight Short Novels, edited by Fernando Alegria and published by Crossing Press in 1981, showcases "an expression of a group of writers who, despite the hardships of life in exile, are producing powerful statements on behalf of the Chilean people." This collection includes Dorfman's Putamadre and offers a chance to compare various perspectives on Chilean politics and life in exile as depicted through fiction.
Extremities, by William Mastrosimone, is a contemporary American play about a woman who is attacked by a rapist in her home but manages to turn the tables and trap her assailant. The play, which was adapted into a film in 1986 starring Farrah Fawcett, provides an interesting contrast to Death and the Maiden due to its revenge theme and the different ways this theme is explored.
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