Congratulations Adela Pineda on Winning the Premio Bellas Artes de Ensayo Literario Malcolm Lowry
Adela Pineda, Program Director of the Latin American Studies Program, won the Premio Bellas Artes de Ensayo Literario Malcolm Lowry by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. Her manuscript Las travesías de John Steinbeck por México, el cine y las vicisitudes del progreso was the winner. The Malcolm Lowry Essay Prize is granted by the National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico (Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes). The essays/manuscripts that are considered, should be based on any foreign author who wrote on Mexico or was involved with Mexican Culture. The prize has been awarded to important writers in previous years, like Jose Emilio Pacheco and Ignacio Padilla.
Adela Pineda wrote on Mexico, Steinbeck, film, and the vicissitudes of progress Las travesías de John Steinbeck por México, el cine y las vicisitudes del progreso. The essay approaches several works by Steinbeck, including the novella The Pearl,(1947), the novel The Wayward Bus (1947); the travelogue The Log of the Sea of Cortez,(1941), as well as three cinematographic productions: The Forgotten Village, directed by Herbert Kline (1941), the adaptation of The Pearl, directed by Emilio Fernández (1948), and Viva Zapata!, directed by Elia Kazan (1952). More than an exclusive analysis of literary and cinematic representation, Pineda’s essay offers readers a panorama of the transnational contexts in which the mentioned works and films emerged. It also considers Steinbeck’s literary work in relation with film and Mexico. Through archival research, the essay weaves together the ideological tendencies which informed both Steinbeck’s novels from this period and the film production, and gives an account of the political, social and economic determinants which formed the conditions in which they were produced. The essay distinguishes Steinbeck’s agency during this historical framework. As such, the approach has more to do with writing an intellectual history of Mexican-US relations with Steinbeck as protagonist, than with an analysis exclusively focused on film and literature.
Congratulations Adela!