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Published:
Jul 21, 2023
Keywords:
Enlightenment, modernity, education for democracy, Alejandro Amenábar, The Others.

Abstract

In this essay we propose that in The Others, Alejandro Amenábar creates an allegory for the transition from obscurantism to the values of the Enlightenment as Emmanuel Kant defined this movement typical of modernity. Amenábar makes Grace –the film’s main character– discover the gaps in her memory and thus to face the uncanny: something that once was fully familiar and conscious but, due to its strong traumatic burden, was expelled to the world of unconsciousness and, in the present of the plot, it returns as something sinister and alien. Amenábar criticizes an education based on fear and a blind faith while exploring the foundations of an education for democracy, a process associated with the collaborative search for truth.


Keywords: Enlightenment, modernity, education for democracy, Alejandro Amenábar, The Others.

Vilma Navarro-Daniels
Maria Serenella Previto Grammatico
Author Biography

Maria Serenella Previto Grammatico, Washington State University

Maria Serenella Previto, M.A., Associate Professor of Spanish and Italian, Career Track, at the School of Languages, Cultures, and Race, at Washington State University. Her research interests focus on Peninsular Spanish film and Chilean and Caribbean literature and popular art. She has internationally presented on the works of Icíar Bollaín, Alejandro Amenábar, Cristina Fernánez Cubas, Violeta Parra, Ana María del Río, Ana Lydia Vega, and Aída Cartagena Portalatín in addition to her scholarly presentations on Italian writers such as Gesualdo Bufalino and Beppe Fenoglio. Maria Serenella Previto has also developed in the field of Fine Arts. Her art work includes pieces in sculpture, ceramics, painting, printmaking, and photography.

How to Cite
Navarro-Daniels, V., & Previto Grammatico, M. S. (2023). From Obscurantism to Enlightenment: Outline of an Education for Democracy in Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others. Contextos: Estudios De Humanidades Y Ciencias Sociales, (52), 87–105. Retrieved from https://revistas.umce.cl/index.php/contextos/article/view/2479

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