Secrets, Trauma, and the Memory Market (or the return of the repressed in recent Argentine post-dictatorship cultural production)

Authors

  • Silvia R Tandeciarz College of William and Mary

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2012.43

Keywords:

Memory, Argentina, State Terrorism, Melodrama, Justice, Neoliberalism

Abstract

Since the end of the last Argentine Dictatorship (1976-1983), a number of feature-length films have engaged in the public debate over the legacies of state terrorism. El secreto de sus ojos (2009), Argentina's most recent Oscar winner, is the latest to do so, exploring the effects of more than a decade of impunity on those who lost their loved ones. Suggesting that restoration of a justice system that works can lead to the restoration of full civic engagement in a healthy body politic, the film raises important questions about citizenship and belonging in a post-national era. This essay explores the film's phenomenal success in the global memory market to illuminate what remains at stake in contemporary narratives of reconciliation.

Author Biography

Silvia R Tandeciarz, College of William and Mary

Associate Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures, and Chair of Modern Languages and Literatures

References

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Campanella, J. J. (2009). El secreto de sus ojos. Argentina: Sony Pictures Classics. 2010. DVD.

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Feitlowitz, M. (1998, 2011). Lexicon of Terror. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

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Hortiguera, H. (2010). "Políticas del recuerdo y memorias de la política en El secreto de sus ojos de Juan José Campanella." Ciberletras 24. Retrieved 7 March 2011 from http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ciberletras/v24/hortiguera.html.

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Nelson, A. A. (2011). "Conclusion. Marketing Discontent: The Political Economy of Memory in Latin America." In K. Bilbija and L.A. Payne (Eds.), Accounting for Violence. Marketing Memory in Latin America. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

Sacheri, E. La pregunta de sus ojos. (2005). Buenos Aires: Galerna.

Sommer, D. (1991). Foundational Fictions: The National Romances of Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Sontag, S. (2003). Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Williams, L. (1998). "Melodrama Revised." In N. Browne (Ed.), Refiguring American Film Genres: History and Theory. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. 42-88.

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Published

2012-04-20

How to Cite

Tandeciarz, S. R. (2012). Secrets, Trauma, and the Memory Market (or the return of the repressed in recent Argentine post-dictatorship cultural production). CINEJ Cinema Journal, 1(2), 62–71. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2012.43

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Section

Articles