Ariel Dorfman (born May 6 1942 Buenos Aires) is an Argentine-Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist.
Dorfman, who is Jewish, was born in Argentina but his family moved to the United States shortly after his birth, and then moved to Chile in 1954. He attended and was later a professor at the University of Chile and adopted Chilean Citizenship in 1967.
From 1970 to 1973, Dorfman was part of the administration of president Salvador Allende. He was forced into exile following the military coup in which General Augusto Pinochet came to power.
Since 1985 he has taught at Duke University, where he is currently Walter Hines Page Research Professor of Literature and Professor of Latin American Studies.
Since the restoration of democracy in Chile (1990), he divides his time between Santiago and the United States.
Dorfman's work often deals with the horrors of tyranny and, in later works, the trials of exile. His most famous play, Death and the Maiden, described the encounter of a former torture victim with the man she believed tortured her; it was made into a film in 1994 by Roman Polanski starring Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley.
Dorfman, a critic of Pinochet, has written extensively about his extradition case for the Spanish newspaper El Pais and other publications.
He is also the subject of a feature-length documentary, "A Promise to the Dead," directed by Peter Raymont. The film will have its world premiere at the International Toronto Film Festival September 8th 2007.
He also is one of the Duke 88. These are the professors who, in the wake of the Lacrosse players scandal, signed a letter calling for a wide on campus discussion about the way the Duke Community viewed race and gender. The letter was then published as a full page ad in local newspapers and reprinted across the country. The charges against the players were eventually dismissed and the District Attorney, Michael Nifong who prosecuted the case was disbarred. Ariel Dorfman did not support Nifong's reelection.
Selected books
- How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic (with Armand Mattelart) ISBN 0-88477-023-0
- Widows (1983) ISBN 1-58322-483-1
- The Last Song of Manuel Sendero (1988) 0140088962
- Heading South, Looking North: A Bilingual Journey (1999) ISBN 0-14-028253-X
- Exorcising Terror: The Incredible Unending Trial of Augusto Pinochet (2002) ISBN 1-58322-542-0
- Burning City (with Joaquin Dorfman) (2006) ISBN 0-375-83204-1
External links
Other pages about Chilean-Americans
-Alexander Witt -Ariel Dorfman -Arturo Valenzuela -Carlos Ruiz-Tagle -Cote de Pablo -Don Francisco (television host) -Horatio Sanz -Isabel Allende -Jorge Garcia -Nina (poet) -Patricia Demick -Tom Araya
Other pages about Chilean Jews
-Alejandro Jodorowsky -Ariel Dorfman -Don Francisco (television host) -Francisco Maldonado da Silva -Israel Polack -List of Chilean Jews -Sebastian Rozental -Tomas Hirsch -Volodia Teitelboim
Other pages about Chilean dramatists and playwrights
-Alejandro Sieveking -Ariel Dorfman -Egon Wolff -Enrique Lihn -Sergio Vodanovic
Other pages about Chilean writers
-Adolfo Couve -Alberto Baeza Flores -Alberto Blest Gana -Alberto Fuguet -Alejandro Sieveking -Andres Velasco -Antonio Skarmeta -Ariel Dorfman -Brenda Hughes -Carlos Pezoa Veliz -Carlos Ruiz-Tagle -Diamela Eltit -Eduardo Barrios -Egon Wolff -Enrique Lafourcade -Francisco Coloane -Gabriela Mistral -Gonzalo Lira -Gonzalo Rojas -Gregorio Billikopf -Hermogenes Irisarri -Hernan Neira -Isabel Allende -Jaime Collyer -Javier Campos -Joaquin Edwards Bello -Jorge Edwards -Jorge Gonzalez von Marees -Jorge Urrutia -Jose Donoso -Jose Toribio Medina -Liborio Brieba -Luis R. Vera -Luis Sepulveda -Manuel Rojas (Author) -Marcela Paz -Marcela Serrano -Maria De la Cruz -Maria Luisa Bombal -Matilde Urrutia -Miguel Arteche -Miguel Serrano -Pedro Balmaceda -Pedro Lemebel -Roberto Bolano -Roberto Castillo -Roberto Valenzuela Elphick -Sergio Badilla Castillo -Soledad Farina Vicuna -Trini Decombe -Victor Domingo Silva
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Ariel_Dorfman
