Voices of the Survivors: Testimony, Mourning, and Memory in Post-dictatorship Argentina, 1983-1995

By blending personal memoir and critical analysis, Voices of the Survivors explores cultural and human responses to the violence of political repression and social disintegration perpetrated in Argentina during the so called Dirty War of the late '70s and early '80s. Central to the theoretical and critical corpus is the work of scholars writing in response to the historical trauma of the Holocaust (Adorno, La Capra, Shoshana Felman), which posed questions regarding social trauma, the links between mourning and memory, and the role of artistic creation and its value as testimony. The book traces shifts in discursive formations and social practices critical to understanding the origin and impact of the Process of National Reorganization (as it was known by the military government) through analysis of a broad range of sources, including poetry, fiction, memoirs and testimonies, popular music, and journalism. These texts explore the persistence of issues of memory and mourning within the particular conditions of Argentine culture in the aftermath of the dictatorship. This significant new work will be essential reading for scholars interested in issues of violence, political and cultural disruption, memory, and historical consciousness.