Speaker: Kate Jenckes, University of Michigan

Studies about Latin America are often motivated by an effort to establish stable cartographies of the living and the dead in relation to historical events. Chilean aesthetic thought is at the forefront of efforts to resist such cartographic thinking of history, but it is riven by different approaches and disciplines. This paper will examine some of these differences through consideration of a renowned but insufficiently understood debate between cultural criticism and philosophy (including prominent intellectuals Nelly Richard, Willy Thayer, Pablo Oyarzún, and Federico Galende), with emphasis on its consequences for understanding the relationship between art, politics, and life. As a counterpoint to the critical-philosophical texts, I will discuss two pieces of art by Lotty Rosenfeld and consider how they contribute to the conversation.