Playful Memories: The Autofictional Turn in Post-Dictatorship Argentina

240 Pages·2016·4.02 MB·English

by  Jordana Blejmar (auth.)

Playful Memories
The Autofictional Turn in
Post-Dictatorship Argentina
Jordana Blejmar
palgrave macmillan memory studies
Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies
Series Editors
Andrew Hoskins
University of Glasgow
Glasgow, United Kingdom
John Sutton
Department of Cognitive Science
Macquarie University
Macquarie, Australia
The nascent field of Memory Studies emerges from contemporary trends
that include a shift from concern with historical knowledge of events to
that of memory, from “what we know” to “how we remember it”; changes
in generational memory; the rapid advance of technologies of memory;
panics over declining powers of memory, which mirror our fascination
with the possibilities of memory enhancement; and the development of
trauma narratives in reshaping the past. These factors have contributed
to an intensification of public discourses on our past over the last thirty
years. Technological, political, interpersonal, social and cultural shifts
affect what, how and why people and societies remember and forget. This
groundbreaking new series tackles questions such as: What is “memory”
under these conditions? What are its prospects, and also the prospects for
its interdisciplinary and systematic study? What are the conceptual, theo-
retical and methodological tools for its investigation and illumination?
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14682
Jordana Blejmar
Playful Memories
The Autofictional Turn in Post-Dictatorship
Argentina
Jordana Blejmar
Department of Communication & Media
University of Liverpool
Liverpool, United Kingdom
Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies
ISBN 978-3-319-40963-4 ISBN 978-3-319-40964-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40964-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957792
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
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Cover image © Lorena Fernández / Lola Arias, Mi vida después (2008)
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To James, Luca and Emilia
A
cknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the patience, kindness
and support of many people. I should like to thank Joanna Page for the
encouraging and yet challenging ways in which she engaged with the work
undertaken here. Aníbal Jarkowski, Ana Longoni and Javier Trímboli were
wonderful friends and generous interlocutors. While I was preparing this
book their work and our discussions were constantly in my mind.
I should also like to thank other friends and colleagues.
In Argentina: Gonzalo Aguilar, Ana Amado, Estanislao Antelo,
Alejandra Birgin, Mario Cámara, Gabriel D’iorio, Lucía De Leone,
Luciana Di Leone, Silvia Duschatzky, Inés Dussel, Cynthia Edul, Claudia
Feld, Carlos Gamerro, Martín Kohan, Guillermo Korn, Federico Lorenz,
Cecilia Macón, Daniela Pelegrinelli, Patricia Redondo, Roberto Pittaluga,
Sylvia Saítta, Valentina Salvi, Yaki Setton and Marcelo Topuzian; the Núcleo
de Estudios sobre Memoria at the Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y
Social, the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales and the Facultad
de Filosofía y Letras at the Universidad de Buenos Aires; the Bers, the
Etembergs and the Romarowskis; María Millán, María Mónaco, Mariana
Santángelo, Lucía Tennina and Noelia Piqué.
In the UK: the Centre of Latin American Studies in Cambridge, in
particular Julie Coimbra, Charles Jones, Geoffrey Kantaris, Rory O’Bryen
and Erica Segre; the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Jens Andermann,
who sparked my interest in coming to study in the UK; Mariana Casale
O’Ryan and June Taylor; Stefanie Gänger, Ed King, Gustavo Rocha and
Paula Porroni, fellow latinoamericanistas at Cambridge; Katia Pizzi and
Bill Marshall, who welcomed me to the Institute of Modern Languages
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Research in London; the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures
in Liverpool, especially Claire Taylor, whose support in recent years has
been immeasurable; Sarah Wright, Emma Wilson and especially Stephi
Hemelryk-Donald from the Leverhulme-funded network Childhood and
Nation in World Cinema; Vikki Bell, Ben Bollig, Andrea Noble and David
Rojinski. Further thanks go to my editors at Palgrave Macmillan.
I am grateful to Natalia Fortuny, Luis Ignacio García, Silvana Mandolessi,
Cecilia Sosa and Mariana Eva Perez, who have been involved in many proj-
ects tied to the topic of this book. Also to Victoria Torres, Kirsten Mahlke
and the team from the European Research Council-funded Narratives
of Terror and Disappearance. Thanks to Constanza Ceresa, Stef Craps,
Gabriel Gatti, Fernando Reati, Alicia Salomone and Saúl Sosnowski.
I should like to extend my thanks to all the artists who shared their sto-
ries and trusted me with their oeuvre. In particular I should like to mention
Ana Adjiman, Laura Alcoba, Lola Arias, Gabriela Bettini, Marcelo Brodsky,
Natalia Bruschtein, Félix Bruzzone, Albertina Carri, the Colectivo de
hijos, Claudia Fontes, Gustavo Germano, María Giuffra, Victoria Grigera
Dupuy, Lucila Quieto, María Soledad Nívoli, Mariana Eva Perez, Nicolás
Prividera, Ernesto Semán, Ángela Urondo and Paloma Vidal.
Thanks to the Scorers, especially Jane and Tony, for their support while
I was working on this book. And special thanks to my parents, sister and
brother—working and living far from them is always the most difficult
decision I have to confront. Finally, this book owes everything to the gen-
erosity, patience and selflessness of James Scorer. He shows me everyday
how powerful and subversive love and laughter can be.
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
2 The Autofictional Turn, Playful Memories of Trauma
and the Post-Dictatorship Generations 13
3 Toying with History in Albertina Carri’s Los rubios 45
4 Self-Fictionalization, Parody and Testimony in Diario
de una princesa montonera—110 % Verdad and 
Montonerísima 69
5 Happily Ever After? Guerrilla Fables and Fairy Tales
of Disappearance 93
6 Lucila Quieto’s Ludic Gaze 115
7 T he Defamiliarized Past in Félix Bruzzone’s Comical
Autofictions 145
8 M onstrous Memories 171
ix
x CONTENTS
9 Conclusion 197
Bibliography 209
Index 225