Breaking the Frames of the Past: Photography and Literature in Contemporary Argentina, Chile, and Peru

Abstract

Examina trabajos visuales y literarios recientes sobre los periodos de violencia política en Argentina, Chile y Perú a finales del siglo XX. Mediante un análisis y comparación, se sostiene que estas producciones culturales pueden desafiar la concepción lineal del tiempo histórico y revelar las tensiones y puntos ciegos existentes dentro del ámbito de la memoria cultural en cada nación. Al examinar la especificidad de los materiales y las estrategias estéticas presentes en las obras, se observa un giro introspectivo necesario en la memoria, lo cual se ha denominado “metamemoria“: producciones que cuestionan discursos e imperativos oficiales de la memoria, y son profundamente conscientes de su lugar como objetos de la memoria dentro de un mercado cultural específico.

Breaking the Frames of the Past examines recent visual and literary work about the periods of historical violence in Argentina, Chile, and Peru. In my dissertation, I argue that these cultural productions can challenge the linear conception of historical time, and reveal the existent tensions and blind spots present within the cultural memory realm of each nation. By examining the specificity of the materials and the aesthetic strategies present in the works, I hope to elucidate a necessary introspective turn in memory- what I have nominated metamemory, present in works that not only seek to interrogate official national paradigms, discourses of the past, productions of knowledge, and memorial imperatives, but also works that are profoundly aware of their condition as memory objects within a cultural memory realms. Breaking the Frames of the Past is divided into two parts, Part One: Images, engages with memory at a broader collective level, and analyzes the different ways the photographic medium has been used to represent the past and craft a sense of national belonging. Part Two: Texts is concerned with subjective memory, and the overlap between childhood memories lived simultaneously within the frame of a period of historical violence. I discuss literary work written by those born during these periods of violence in order to see how from their subjective experience and through their works they can assert to the existing tensions within cultural memory paradigms. In examining novels by those who are “the Secondary Characters” of history, I argue that their use of metafictional strategies is able to counter the feeling of displacement and sense of belatedness that is present in postmemory works.