Ana M. López by Ana Lpez

Ana M. López by Ana Lpez

Brings together Ana M. López's field-defining essays on Latin American film and media in one indispensable volume.

Ana M. López is one of the foremost film and media scholars in the world. Her work has addressed Latin American filmmaking in every historical period, across countries and genres-from early cinema to the present; from Brazil, Cuba, and Mexico to diasporic and Latinx cinemas in the United States; from documentary to melodrama to politically militant film. López's groundbreaking essays have transformed Latin American film studies, opening up new approaches, theoretical frameworks, and lines of investigation while also extending beyond cinema to analyze its connections with television, radio, and broader cultural phenomena. Bringing together twenty-five essays from throughout her career, including three that have been translated into English for this volume, Ana M. López is divided into three sections: the transnational turn in Latin American film studies; analysis of genre and modes; and debates surrounding race, ethnicity, and gender. Expertly curated and edited by Laura Podalsky and Dolores Tierney, the volume includes introductory material throughout to map and situate López's key interventions and to aid students and scholars less familiar with her work.

"By bringing many of López's essays together into one carefully edited volume, Laura Podalsky and Dolores Tierney are not only paying tribute to someone they rightfully call one of the foremost scholars of Latin American cinema; they are also making it easier for young scholars to engage with a remarkable body of work that fruitfully combines breadth with depth, theory with close readings, and transnationalism with comparativism, all from a continental perspective" — H-Net Reviews (H-LatAm)

"Ana M. López's Essays emerges as an indispensable navigational tool for scholars embarking on the terrain of Latin-American Cinema Studies. The essays within exhibit a notable degree of theoretical and analytical rigour, affirming the author's ability to formulate enquiries that paved the way for innovative and fruitful avenues of scholarly investigation. Beyond serving as a retrospective analysis of López's academic and professional trajectory, which remains both dynamic and provocative, the anthology of essays functions as a fundamental historical document. It proves instrumental in comprehending the genesis and consolidation of the broader field of Latin-American Cinema Studies and its extensions into specific geographical and thematic domains." — Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies

"Ana López's work always provided a clear compass to the field, its debates, and its ideas. Her articles often result in long-living lines of inquiry and even entire subfields. All of us working in Latin American film studies are indebted to Ana's career and dedication." — from the foreword by Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado

"To state that Latin American film and media studies would not be the same without Ana López is no exaggeration. López not only helped carve out space in a historically Eurocentric discipline for consideration of Latin American and Latino/a/x cinema and film cultures but also made them an essential part of the conversation. While she is an academic legend, her work has never been static but has always evolved, taking us in new directions as we attempt to keep pace with her brilliance." — Rielle Navitski, author of Public Spectacles of Violence: Sensational Cinema and Journalism in Early Twentieth-Century Mexico and Brazil

Ana M. López is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, and Director of the Cuban and Caribbean Studies Institute at Tulane University. Laura Podalsky is Professor and Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at The Ohio State University. Dolores Tierney is Professor and Head of Film Studies in the School of Media, Arts and Humanities at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.