Desire and Eroticism in Dictatorial Times: Film Strategies Against Censorship in Totalitarian Regimes

Abstract

Along with the use of censorship as an instrument of political repression, dictatorships have also tended to censor expressions of eroticism. In the realm of cinema, this repressive tendency has sometimes been challenged by creators, by means of rhetorical devices of a metaphorical nature. This article traces the theoretical bases that can explain this clash between what the authorities attempt to prohibit and what nevertheless emerges in the artistic expressions of cinema. Based on Foucault’s definition of censorship as a device, this article explores the degree to which that device has the effect of bringing out on the imaginative level what the censors sought to prohibit, as revealed, in relation to diverse totalitarian contexts, in the different filmmakers referred to.