ARIEL DORFMAN Biography - Writers

 
 

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ARIEL DORFMAN

Ariel Dorfman is an Argentine-Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, and human   
rights activist. From 1970 to 1973, he was part of the administration of         
president Salvador Allende. He was forced into exile following the bloody         
military coup of 1973 in which General Augusto Pinochet came to power. Since     
1985 he has taught at Duke University.                                           
                                                                                 
Dorfman has written fiction often dealing with the horrors of tyranny and, in     
later works, the trials of exile. His most famous play, 'Death and the Maiden',   
was made into a film in 1994 by Roman Polanski starring Sigourney Weaver and Ben 
Kingsley. He has written extensively about his extradition in books such as 'How 
to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic' and 'Exorcising   
Terror: The Incredible Unending Trial of Augusto Pinochet'.