UC Santa Cruz

This paper will reposition the frame through which A TV Dante has been seen. A TV Dante has been seen in relation to Ruiz’s “spectral turn” and his transmedia explorations characteristic of his 1980s films, or as representative of the nostalgic wanderings of his exile films. Rather, I read A TV Dante, not only in these terms, but as a film that is grappling with the problematics of return after the dictatorship. As such, scholars have often looked toward two films in particular in order to point to the problems and concerns that Ruiz’s films have raised in relation to return after exile: (Lettre d'un cinéaste ou Le retour d'un amateur de bibliothèques [Letter from a Library Lover or The Return of a Library Lover (1983) and Cofralandes (2002). I will argue, however, that exile and return are also key topoi for A TV Dante.