Ariel Dorfman
Ariel Dorfman – Life, Work, and Voices of Exile
Ariel Dorfman is an Argentine-Chilean-American novelist, playwright, essayist, and human rights activist. This article explores his life, exile, major works (including Death and the Maiden), political engagement, memorable quotes, and legacy.
Introduction
Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman (born May 6, 1942) is a prolific and politically engaged writer, academic, and human rights advocate.
He is known especially for his play Death and the Maiden, which dramatizes themes of justice, memory, trauma, and reconciliation in post-dictatorship contexts. His life has been shaped by exile, identity, political violence, and the struggle for free expression—and these themes resonate throughout his fiction, essays, and activism.
As a professor of literature and Latin American studies at Duke University since 1985, Dorfman has also influenced generations of students and readers in both the English- and Spanish-speaking worlds.
Early Life and Family
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Dorfman was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on May 6, 1942.
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His father, Adolfo (or Adolf) Dorfman, was originally from Odessa (then part of the Russian Empire) and worked as an economist in Argentina.
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His mother, Fanny Zelicovich Dorfman, was of Jewish descent from Bessarabia (Kishinev).
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Shortly after his birth, his family moved to the United States, where he spent the first ten years of his life.
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In 1954 the family relocated to Chile, where Dorfman would grow up, study, and begin his career.
He married Angélica Malinarich in 1966. Rodrigo and Joaquín Dorfman.
Education & Early Intellectual Influences
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In Chile, he attended the University of Chile, where he studied literature and developed his early critical and literary sensibilities.
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Between 1968 and 1969, Dorfman pursued graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley in the United States.
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Early in his intellectual formation, he was influenced by the theater of Harold Pinter: his thesis was published as El absurdo entre cuatro paredes: el teatro de Harold Pinter (1968).
Dorfman’s early writing and criticism often engaged questions of ideology, culture, power, and representation, laying the foundation for his lifelong blending of art and politics.
Political Engagement & Exile
Role in Allende’s Government & Coup
From 1970 to 1973, Dorfman served as a cultural adviser to President Salvador Allende in Chile. How to Read Donald Duck (1971) with Armand Mattelart—a critique of cultural imperialism and how children’s comics (like Disney) transmit ideological values.
On September 11, 1973, the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet overthrew Allende. Dorfman, like many intellectuals and political actors, was forced into exile.
He then lived abroad in Paris, Amsterdam, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, continuing his writing, activism, and engagement with themes of displacement and justice.
Academic Career in the U.S.
In 1985, Dorfman joined the faculty of Duke University (Durham, North Carolina), as professor of literature and Latin American studies. Walter Hines Page Research Professorship in literature.
He became a citizen of the United States in 2004, while still maintaining identities and ties with Argentina and Chile.
Dorfman has continued to divide his time between Santiago, Chile and the U.S. since the restoration of democracy in Chile in 1990.
Literary Work & Major Themes
Dorfman is a remarkably versatile author—writing novels, plays, essays, poetry, libretti, and memoirs in both Spanish and English.
Major Works & Productions
Some of his most significant works:
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Death and the Maiden (La muerte y la doncella) (1990): Probably his best-known play. It focuses on a former political prisoner meeting the man she believes tortured her—a confrontation between justice, memory, trauma, and forgiveness.
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Widows (Viudas) — a play and part of what is sometimes called his “Resistance Trilogy.”
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Reader (drama)
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Novels: Hard Rain (Moros en la costa) (1973) The Nanny and the Iceberg, Blake’s Therapy, The Suicide Museum (2023)
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Essays & Nonfiction: Heading South, Looking North: A Bilingual Journey (memoir) Exorcising Terror: The Incredible Unending Trial of Augusto Pinochet (on the Pinochet regime and human rights)
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Feeding on Dreams: Confessions of an Unrepentant Exile (memoir)
His works are widely translated (into over 50 languages) and performed in more than 100 countries.
Themes & Style
Throughout his corpus, certain central themes recur:
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Tyranny, dictatorship, trauma, and memory: Dorfman gives voice to those silenced by oppressive regimes, exploring the moral and emotional complexities of justice, forgetting, and the weight of the past. (e.g. Death and the Maiden)
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Exile, identity, dislocation: His own life as an exile infuses much of his writing. He meditates on what it means to be between languages, cultures, and geographies.
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Power, ideology, and cultural critique: From How to Read Donald Duck onward, Dorfman has interrogated how popular culture, ideology, and narratives of innocence shape consciousness and suppress dissent.
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Art as political engagement: For him, writing is not separate from politics. The act of storytelling is inherently ethical and public.
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Reconciliation, justice, and the tension between forgetting and remembering: His works often navigate how societies heal—or fail to heal—after violence.
Legacy and Influence
Ariel Dorfman is widely regarded as one of the most important writers in Latin American and global political literature.
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His play Death and the Maiden is considered a modern classic of political theatre, widely staged and adapted.
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His ideas and writings on culture and ideology have influenced scholars, activists, and artists exploring memory, power, and human rights.
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As an academic at Duke, he mentored many students in literature, Latin American studies, and human rights discourse.
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His bilingual, cross-cultural approach—writing in Spanish and English, moving between Latin America and the U.S.—gives him a bridge role between cultural worlds.
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His public voice (in essays, journalism, and activism) continues to engage debates around authoritarianism, reconciliation, memory, censorship, and democracy.
Memorable Quotes
Here are a few striking statements (or paraphrases) attributed to Ariel Dorfman, reflecting his convictions:
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“One’s writing is deeply political.” (He refuses to separate art from social reality.)
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On storytelling and trauma: “I’m constantly trying to figure out how you can be true to an experience that very few people in the world would understand … and at the same time find a way of telling that story so other people … can read their own lives into that.”
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On memory and forgetting: his works often explore how forgetting is never neutral—silence is a political choice.
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On exile and identity: his memoirs reflect the ambivalence and paradox of longing for a homeland while building new attachments.
Lessons from Ariel Dorfman’s Life
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Art can confront power
Dorfman exemplifies how literature and theatre can probe forces of tyranny, injustice, and repression—not from a distance, but with moral urgency. -
Exile does not silence
Though forced to live away from his homeland, he used the distance to reflect, critique, and speak with global audiences, turning disruption into perspective. -
Language as site of resistance
Writing in more than one language, engaging with cultural symbols and narratives, Dorfman shows how language can be contested terrain. -
Memory must be nurtured
His works remind us that forgetting injustice is itself a kind of danger; the act of remembering is part of justice. -
Bridge across divides
Through his dual identities (Latin American, Anglo, exile), Dorfman shows how cross-cultural dialogue, empathy, and translation can enrich both sides.
Conclusion
Ariel Dorfman is not a writer only of Latin America, exile, or memory—he is a global voice for conscience, art, and resistance. He transforms personal experience into universal narratives of suffering, remembrance, and possibility.