The contribution of Latin American fiction cinema to contemporary imaginaries

Abstract

The objective of this article is to investigate the contribution of fiction cinema to the formation of contemporary imaginaries, with an emphasis on nihilism and its antidote, the tragic affirmation, from a Nietzschean perspective and based on the premise that cinema, as a narrative art, plays a pedagogical role in the (re)configuration of reality and the construction of meaning. The theoretical framework is primarily grounded in the contributions of Gaston Bachelard and Gilbert Durand for studies of the imaginary, Friedrich Nietzsche for tragic thought, and David Bordwell, among others, for cinematic approaches, with symbolic hermeneutics and Nietzschean perspectiv- ism as the methodology. The study focuses on films, mostly Latin American, that exemplify nihilism, characterized by the devaluation of supreme values, and tragic affirmation, which uncondi- tionally embraces life. The results indicate that cinema not only reflects the imaginaries of a society but also exerts significant pedagogical pressure, influencing collective perception and promoting reflections on the human condition. The research concludes that, by confronting nihilism with tragic affirmation, cinema offers a symbolic antidote, enabling the revaluation and intensification of life, in alignment with the euphemizing function of the imaginary.