Ariel Dorfman (born May 6, 1942 Buenos Aires) is an Argentine-Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. is the 126th day of the year (127th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... For other uses, see Buenos Aires (disambiguation). ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. ... An essayist is an author who writes compositions which can be about any particular subject. ... Plato is credited with the inception of academia: the body of knowledge, its development and transmission across generations. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ...

Dorfman, who is Jewish, was born in Argentina but his family moved to the United States shortly after his birth, and then moved to Chile in 1954. He attended and was later a professor at the University of Chile and adopted Chilean Citizenship in 1967. Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Universidad de Chile may refer to: Universidad de Chile (university) Universidad de Chile (football club) This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ...

From 1970 to 1973, Dorfman was part of the administration of president Salvador Allende. He was forced into exile following the military coup in which General Augusto Pinochet came to power. Salvador Allende Gossens[1] (July 26, 1908 – September 11, 1973) was President of Chile from November 1970 until his suicide during the coup détat of September 11, 1973. ... La Moneda Presidential Palace being bombed during the coup (1973) The Chilean coup détat of 1973 was a watershed event in the history of Chile and the Cold War. ... Captain General Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte[1] (Valparaíso November 25, 1915–Santiago of Chile December 10, 2006) was dictator and President of Chile from 1973 to 1990. ...

Since 1985 he has taught at Duke University, where he is currently Walter Hines Page Research Professor of Literature and Professor of Latin American Studies. Duke University is a private coeducational research university located in Durham, North Carolina, USA. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. ... Latin American Studies (sometimes abbreviated LAS) is an academic discipline which studies the history and experience of peoples and cultures in the Americas. ...

Since the restoration of democracy in Chile (1990), he divides his time between Santiago and the United States. Location of Santiago commune in Greater Santiago Coordinates: Region Santiago Metropolitan Region Province Santiago Province Foundation February 12, 1541 Government  - Mayor Raúl Alcaíno Lihn Area 1  - City 641. ...

Dorfman's work often deals with the horrors of tyranny and, in later works, the trials of exile. His most famous play, Death and the Maiden, described the encounter of a former torture victim with the man she believed tortured her; it was made into a film in 1994 by Roman Polanski starring Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley. Death and the Maiden (La muerte y la doncella) is a play by Ariel Dorfman, first published in 1991. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar). ... Roman Polanski (born Raymond Liebling, August 18, 1933 in Paris) is an Academy Award-winning Franco-Polish film director, writer, actor and producer. ... Sigourney Weaver (born Susan Alexandra Weaver on October 8, 1949 in New York City) is an Oscar-nominated American actress. ... Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE, (born Krishna Bhanji on December 31, 1943) is an Academy Award-winning British actor. ...

Dorfman, a critic of Pinochet, has written extensively about his extradition case for the Spanish newspaper El País and other publications. El País (Spanish for The Country) is the most widely-circulated daily newspaper in Spain. ...

He is also the subject of a feature-length documentary, "A Promise to the Dead," directed by Peter Raymont. The film will have its world premiere at the International Toronto Film Festival September 8th 2007.

He also is one of the Duke 88. These are the professors who, in the wake of the Lacrosse players scandal, signed a letter calling for a wide on campus discussion about the way the Duke Community viewed race and gender. The letter was then published as a full page ad in local newspapers and reprinted across the country. The charges against the players were eventually dismissed and the District Attorney, Michael Nifong who prosecuted the case was disbarred. Ariel Dorfman did not support Nifong's reelection.

Selected books

• How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic (with Armand Mattelart) ISBN 0-88477-023-0
• Widows (1983) ISBN 1-58322-483-1
• The Last Song of Manuel Sendero (1988) 0140088962
• Heading South, Looking North: A Bilingual Journey (1999) ISBN 0-14-028253-X
• Exorcising Terror: The Incredible Unending Trial of Augusto Pinochet (2002) ISBN 1-58322-542-0
• Burning City (with Joaquin Dorfman) (2006) ISBN 0-375-83204-1

External links

• Ariel Dorfman's website
• Ariel Dorfman's memoir, Heading South, Looking North
• Ariel Dorfman at the Internet Movie Database
• Death and the Maiden at the Internet Movie Database
• 1988 Audio Interview with Ariel Dorfman by Don Swaim