Genre of Death and the Maiden

Throughout our in class discussions we have talked about genres and where we would place our readings. Ariel Dorfman's book, Death and the Maiden could have faced the same criticisms as Jerzy Kosinski's piece, The Painted Bird. Criticisms regarding the truthfulness of the story and if the author's story regards their own experience or someone else's. Death and the Maiden is setting is explained , "The time is present and the place, a country that is probably Chile but could be any country that has given itself a democratic government just after a long period of dictatorship" (Dorfman). Upon doing some research on Dorfman, I found that he was exiled from Chile during a time of General Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. Paulina, a main character, also had direct ties to a dictatorship; it could have also been Pinochet's dictatorship. She was a survivor of torture and destruction set on by the dictator. "Approximately 3,000 Chilean residents are known to have been executed or "disappeared", more than 27,000 were incarcerated and tortured. Many were exiled and received abroad" (PBWorks).

Both the author and main character have possible relations with the time period of dictatorship. We could ask ourselves if Paulina is a real person related to Dorfman. I believe that this book could be set in the genre of realistic fiction. The events that tie the main character and the author are very similar, just like in The Painted Bird.

http://sbmstagemanagement.pbworks.com/w/page/5387000/History