Professor Griffin’s book The Labor of Literature: Democracy and Literary Culture in Modern Chile examines amateur and non-commercial forms of literary production in Chile that originated in response to the repressive cultural policies of Chile’s military dictatorship (1973-1990) and that have gained momentum throughout the post dictatorship period (1990-present). Professor Griffin argues that by producing literature in non-traditional forms—such as books made out of cardboard trash, billboards in subway stations, digital books on the Internet, miniature shopping bags, and even as children’s toys—Chileans have made and circulated literary objects in defiance of state censorship and independent of capitalist definitions of value. She recasts the dictatorship as a time of editorial experimentation rather than widespread cultural suppression, and it shows how grassroots cultural activism challenges neoliberal hegemony in modern Chile. This research also points to the growing importance of auto-gestión, or do-it-yourself cultural production through which individuals across the global combine new technologies with artisanal forms of making and sharing creative goods.
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