"Latins" go to the Cinema's Mecca

Abstract

The presence of accounts organized around the reason behind a trip to Hollywood is a significant piece of information of Latin American literature from the1920s through the 1930s, which runs parallel the expansion of the American cinematography. Una aventura de amor (1918), Miss Dorothy Phillips, mi esposa (1919), Che Ferrati, inventor (1923) and Hollywood, novela da vida real (1932) are examples to be analyzed. With this goal, the following aspects will be considered: the unraveling of the rules that are in place in major studios; the portrait of “types” that are consolidated during these years; the mimetic relationship of the characters with cinema in a variety of frameworks; the spectator-star emotional bond; the theme of the stunt-double; the critical imbrications between cinematography and literary fiction; the use of procedures tending towards giving the writing a cinematic structure and dynamism.