Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Paradoxes of Blood: From the Madres' Queer Mourning to the Kirchnerist Era
- 2 Black Humour and the Children of the Disappeared
- 3 Undoing the Cult of the Victim: Los Rubios, M and La mujer sin cabeza
- 4 The Cooking Mother: Hebe de Bonafini and the Conversion of the Former ESMA
- 5 The Attire of (Post-)Memory: Mi vida después
- 6 Kinship, Loss and Political Heritage: Los topos and Kirchner's Death
- Conclusion: The Recovery of the House
- Afterword
- Bibliography and Filmography
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Paradoxes of Blood: From the Madres' Queer Mourning to the Kirchnerist Era
- 2 Black Humour and the Children of the Disappeared
- 3 Undoing the Cult of the Victim: Los Rubios, M and La mujer sin cabeza
- 4 The Cooking Mother: Hebe de Bonafini and the Conversion of the Former ESMA
- 5 The Attire of (Post-)Memory: Mi vida después
- 6 Kinship, Loss and Political Heritage: Los topos and Kirchner's Death
- Conclusion: The Recovery of the House
- Afterword
- Bibliography and Filmography
- Index
Summary
The aftermath of Argentina's last dictatorship (1976–83) has traditionally been associated with narratives of suffering, which recall the loss of the 30,000 civilians known as the ‘disappeared’. When democracy was restored, the unspoken rule was that only those related by blood to the missing were entitled to ask for justice. This book has emerged as an attempt to both query and queer this bloodline normativity. Drawing on queer theory and performance studies, it develops an alternative framework for understanding the affective transmission of trauma beyond traditional family settings. In order to do this, it introduces an archive of non-normative acts of mourning. This archive runs across different generations. Through the analysis of a broad spectrum of performances – including interviews, memoirs, cooking sessions, jokes, films, theatrical productions and literature – this book shows how the experience of loss has not only produced a well-known imaginary of suffering but also new forms of collective pleasure. Ultimately, it suggests that the experience of violence sheds light on a new sense of ‘being together’ in the wake of loss.
To some extent, this book also draws from my personal experience. I grew up during the dictatorship and, although there are no victims in my family, the experience of loss and violence marked me deeply. As with many others of my generation, some of my closest friends have missing relatives and the resonances of this experience of terror have informed my affective and political environment during successive periods of my life.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Queering Acts of Mourning in the Aftermath of Argentina's DictatorshipThe Performances of Blood, pp. xi - xviPublisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2014