ICGC Brown Bag
Presented by Ana Forcinto, Associate Professor,
U of M Department of Spanish and ICGC Affiliated Faculty
Presented by Ana Forcinto, Associate Professor,
U of M Department of Spanish and ICGC Affiliated Faculty
Friday, November 18, 12pm
537 Heller Hall
Former detainees have a central place in the Argentine redemocratization process that started in 1983. Their testimonies have been essential in determining the existence, location, and living conditions of Clandestine Detention Camps, in identifying repressors, and especially in providing information about the desaparecidos. The testimonial practices of the survivors-in documentary film, and in artistic and literary practices-have been important not only for human rights and memory struggles but also for the dismantling of the interpretations, biases, and assumptions that supported many years of impunity. In this presentation I analyze gendered aspects of impunity in the Argentine post dictatorship, by focusing on the difficulties that women survivors have had in bearing witness to their experiences in detention camps. Because these testimonies imply, in the last instance, a re-thinking of what violence is-and even the concept of bare life-they also imply the need to reconsider the relationship between violence and force, violence and coercion, and violence and (fake) consent.
