Symposium 2001 - Professor Ariel Dorfman

A South American Perspective. Speech presented at the NSW Centenary of Federation, Holding Together Series of International Speakers.

Professor Ariel Dorfman, the Chilean author of numerous works of fiction, plays, poems, essays and films in both Spanish and English, holds the Walter Hines Page Chair of Literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University.

His books have been translated into more than 30 languages and have received many prizes.

Dorfman's works include the novels Mascara, Hard Rain, The Last Song of Manuel Sendero and Konfidenz; a story collection; and Last Waltz in Santiago, a book of poems.

Among his plays - performed in more than one hundred countries - are Death and the Maiden (which won England's Olivier Award for Best Play, was produced on Broadway and made into a feature film directed by Roman Polanski), Reader, and Widows, both of which have won Kennedy Center awards.

Among the films he has scripted with his eldest son Rodrigo, are Deadline (for Channel Four in England) and Prisoners in Time (for the BBC), which won a best screenplay award in Great Britain in 1996, as well as the short film My House is On Fire which he co-wrote and co-directed.

His most recent works are the novel, The Nanny and the Iceberg, the memoir, Heading South, Looking North, and a play that had its premiere at the Kennedy Center, Speak Truth to Power:Voices from Beyond the Dark, which was transmitted by PBS in the United States.

The year 2001 has seen the publication of two works: the novel Blake's Therapy and a story for children, The Rabbit's Rebellion, as well as a new play, Purgatory, staged in London.

An expatriate from his country, he has been active in the defense of human rights for many decades, having addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations. He writes regularly for many of the most important newspapers and magazines around the world and has received numerous honorary degrees.

He lives in Durham, North Carolina, with his wife, Angelica, and travels frequently to Santiago, Chile. Ariel Dorfman loves Australia.

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