Fracturas y discontinuidades de Buenos Aires en el cine y la ficción de la década de 1990: Mala época y Vivir afuera

Abstract

Neoliberalism brought deep changes to Argentina in the 1990’s. One of them was the transformation of the cities with respect to their physical aspect (the impoverishment of the middle class, the reduction of public spaces, the fragmentation of the urban fabric) along with the transformation of the mental image Argentines have of their cities. This was compounded by two phenomena pertaining to the decade: job insecurity and a generalized fear vis–à–vis the new reality. This article traces the resulting changes in the imaginary mental map of Buenos Aires in two works of 1998: the film Mala época directed by four graduates of the Buenos Aires School of Film; and Rodolfo Fogwill’s novel Vivir afuera.