Fantasy and Imperial Discourse in Herzog'sAguirre, the Wrath of God

Bibliographic Data

ID2170101
AuthorsPatricio Boyer (0000-0001-8827-9680, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume20
Issue3
Pages261-279
Publication date2011-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Latin American Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1356-9325 • E-ISSN: 1469-9575
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13569325.2011.617361
OpenAlexW2008884515
LanguageEN
References cited20

This essay explores the way Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God articulates the relationship between conquest, fantasy and desire. Although the film has been traditionally interpreted through the lens of historical representation or individual madness, I make the case that it explores the relationship between desire and imperial ideology. I argue for reading Aguirre as a reflection on the schematic, determinative structure of fantasy as that which produces desire in the subject rather than vice versa. In doing so, I suggest that it is not the object of desire that produces desire in Herzog's paradigm of conquest, but rather the fantasy that produces the constantly deferred object of desire. I end by reflecting on the way this seductive theoretical paradigm can prove problematic for contemporary critics and interpreters of colonial Spanish America

Aesthetics · Art · Fantasy · Ideology · Linguistics · Literature · Object (grammar · Politics · Sociology · Subject (documents · Cinema and Media Studies · Cinema History and Criticism · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Philosophy

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