Silvana Mandolessi
KU Leuven, Cultural Studies, Department Member
- Cultural Studies, Discourse Analysis, Memory Studies, Cultural Memory, Argentine Literature, Literatura Latinoamericana, and 8 moreCollective Memory, Literatura argentina, Enforced Disappearances, Social and Collective Memory, History and Memory, Haunting and Spectrality, Hauntology, and Monsters, Ghosts, Hauntingedit
- I am associate professor of Cultural Studies at KU Leuven. I received my PhD in Romance Literature at KU Leuven, and ... moreI am associate professor of Cultural Studies at KU Leuven. I received my PhD in Romance Literature at KU Leuven, and a B.A in Modern Literature at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina. Before joining the faculty, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Universität Heidelberg and Universität Konstanz.
My research interests lie in memory and trauma studies, twentieth century and contemporary Latin American literature and culture, affect theory and the digital turn. My work explores how Latin American countries have dealt with the legacy of human right violations, particularly enforced disappearance. I’m particularly interested in the transnational dimension of memory, not only in how mnemonic repertoires circulate across regions and continents, but also how theories and debates on collective memory travels – or not between Europe and (Latin) America. My latest research focuses on the impact of the digital turn on the shaping of collective memory, interrogating whether digitization represents a radical break with previous cultural memory frameworks, or just a new phase that is characterized by continuities more than ruptures between previous and current, online and offline memory practices. I am currently Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant project “Digital Memories”, in which the impact of digital media on memory is examined by an interdisciplinary research team.
I am the author of Una literatura abyecta: Gombrowicz en la tradición argentina (Brill, 2012), co-author of Digital Reason: A Guide to Meaning, Medium and Community in a Modern World (Leuven UP, 2020), and co-editor of Disappearances in Mexico: From the ‘Dirty War’ to the ‘War on Drugs’. (Routledge forthcoming), Afectos y violencia en la cultural latinoamericana (Iberoamericana/Verveurt, forthcoming), El pasado inasequible. Desaparecidos, hijos y combatientes en el arte y la literatura del nuevo milenio (Eudeba, 2019) and Estudios de memoria, Eduvim 2015). I have also co-edited special issues of European Review and Nuevo Texto Crítico on the transnational dimension of identity, memory and culture in the Hispanic world.
I have been visiting professor at the University of California, UCLA, Los Angeles, and visiting researcher at UNAM (Mexico) and Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina).edit
This introductory article sets out to review the applicability and productivity of affect as a high-impact concept in the humanities. With a particular focus on a cultural studies perspective, it evaluates the different strands in affect... more
This introductory article sets out to review the applicability and productivity of affect as a high-impact concept in the humanities. With a particular focus on a cultural studies perspective, it evaluates the different strands in affect theory and surveys the most recent approaches in the field. The authors argue for adopting a relational approach, focusing on specific formations or "affective arrangements", which considers affect as a site of convergence of different actors, discourses, media, etc. instead of an isolated process. The second section of the article provides a short overview of the study of violence in Latin Americanist scholarship and underscores the relevance of affective arrangements when studying the multiplicity of violences in cultural expressions from the region.
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Este volumen presenta un análisis de la relación entre violencia y afecto en la cultura latinoamericana. Desde una perspectiva interdisciplinaria, las contribuciones que lo integran abordan un amplio espectro de producciones culturales,... more
Este volumen presenta un análisis de la relación entre violencia y afecto en la cultura latinoamericana. Desde una perspectiva interdisciplinaria, las contribuciones que lo integran abordan un amplio espectro de producciones culturales, incluyendo literatura, cine, fotografías, instalaciones y performances. El volumen ofrece un panorama de la trayectoria y el impacto del giro afectivo en la región, interrogando la especificidad que adquiere la teoría afectiva en América Latina, al tiempo que explora las mutaciones del concepto de violencia en el panorama contemporáneo. El potencial político de los afectos feos, la efectividad afectiva de las obras de arte para movilizar al espectador, la exploración de posiciones afectivas incómodas o el afecto como forma desterritorializada en el cine contemporáneo son algunas de las intersecciones entre afectos y violencias que el libro indaga.
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Baetens, Jan, Ortwin de Graef and Silvana Mandolessi. Digital reason: A Guide to Meaning, Medium, Community in a Modern World. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2020 The digital revolution has changed our ways of thinking, working,... more
Baetens, Jan, Ortwin de Graef and Silvana Mandolessi. Digital reason: A Guide to Meaning, Medium, Community in a Modern World. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2020
The digital revolution has changed our ways of thinking, working, writing, and living together. In this book the authors critically analyse the ways in which these new technologies have reshaped our world in numerous respects, ranging from politics, ideology, and philosophy over art and communication to memory and identity. The book challenges the customary view of a divide between analogue and digital culture, claiming instead that human endeavour has always been characterised by certain forms and aspects of digital thinking, building, and communicating, and that essential parts of analog culture are still being reshaped by new digital technologies. It offers a multidisciplinary approach to digital reason, reflecting the diversity of humanities scholarship and its fundamental contribution to the ongoing changes in our current and future thinking and doing.
The digital revolution has changed our ways of thinking, working, writing, and living together. In this book the authors critically analyse the ways in which these new technologies have reshaped our world in numerous respects, ranging from politics, ideology, and philosophy over art and communication to memory and identity. The book challenges the customary view of a divide between analogue and digital culture, claiming instead that human endeavour has always been characterised by certain forms and aspects of digital thinking, building, and communicating, and that essential parts of analog culture are still being reshaped by new digital technologies. It offers a multidisciplinary approach to digital reason, reflecting the diversity of humanities scholarship and its fundamental contribution to the ongoing changes in our current and future thinking and doing.
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Blejmar, Jordana, Silvana Mandolessi & Mariana Eva Perez (eds). El pasado inasequible. Desaparecidos, hijos y combatientes en el arte y la literatura del nuevo milenio. Buenos Aires: Eudeba, 2018.
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El escritor polaco Witold Gombrowicz ocupa hoy un lugar paradójico en la literatura argentina. Este libro indaga ese lugar a través de la categoría de lo abyecto, una categoría psicoanalítica, política y estética que ilumina tanto la... more
El escritor polaco Witold Gombrowicz ocupa hoy un lugar paradójico en la literatura argentina. Este libro indaga ese lugar a través de la categoría de lo abyecto, una categoría psicoanalítica, política y estética que ilumina tanto la práctica literaria de Gombrowicz como la recepción ambivalente que sufrió en Argentina. Inspirándose en los escritos teóricos de Julia Kristeva, e integrando las elaboraciones teóricas más recientes, este libro evalúa el ‘legado argentino’ del escritor polaco, y demuestra, al mismo tiempo, el potencial interpretativo de lo abyecto como categoría de análisis literario.
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This article examines the changes experienced by collective memory in the digital era. Contrary to the thesis that digital memory entails a new type of memory, which is radically different from the traditional conceptualization, I argue... more
This article examines the changes experienced by collective memory in the digital era. Contrary to the thesis that digital memory entails a new type of memory, which is radically different from the traditional conceptualization, I argue that the practice of digital memory materializes and implements the theoretical claims made by Memory Studies since the field's inceptioncollective memory conceived as a process, mediated and remediated by multiple media, with the participation of dynamic communities that perform rather than represent the past. In the article, I address what I propose are the following four major transformations that collective memory has undergone in the digital era: (1) the new ontology of the digital archive; (2) the shift from narrative as a privileged form of collective memory to the cultural form of the database; (3) the reconfiguration of agency, in which a distributed memory is performed by human and nonhuman agents in a dynamic entanglement; and (4) the shift from mnemonic objects to mnemonic assemblages, comprising persons, things, artefacts, spaces, discourses, behaviours and expressions in dynamic relatedness.
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La teoría de los afectos ha estado marcada, desde sus inicios, por una fascinación por la teoría y los debates conceptuales que no fue acompañada de una preocupación por el método. Solo recientemente, el problema de la metodología en el... more
La teoría de los afectos ha estado marcada, desde sus inicios, por una fascinación por la teoría y los debates conceptuales que no fue acompañada de una preocupación por el método. Solo recientemente, el problema de la metodología en el estudio de los afectos ha sido abordado de manera sistemática. ¿Cómo investigar empíricamente el afecto, por definición corporal, fugaz e inmaterial, siempre entre entidades o nodos, cuando los métodos tradicionales están diseñados para aprehender lo permanente, lo tangible, lo categorizable en entidades distintivas? En este artículo propongo un recorrido por esta preocupación metodológica. En primer lugar, analizo el dilema entre dos opciones: la invención de nuevos métodos o la adaptación de los ya existentes. En esta primera sección, discuto la dicotomía entre afecto y emoción, señalando cómo los métodos tradicionales han sido y son usados para la investigación afectiva, con dos ejemplos breves del análisis discursivo y el análisis visual. En la segunda parte desarrollo el concepto de 'assemblage', una noción que se propone trascender la dicotomía entre afecto y emoción, convirtiéndose en un instrumento útil para abordar los fenómenos afectivos. Esta opción metodológica propone tratar con conceptos operativos en lugar de métodos entendidos como una serie de pasos a seguir, conceptos que son probados y discutidos en los análisis empíricos y cuya virtud es la de poder funcionar de manera efectiva en un diálogo permanente entre teoría y práctica.
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This chapter critically examines Latin American digital literature. First, it deals with the definition and main traits of electronic literature, arguing that electronic literature represents not just the emergence of a new modality that... more
This chapter critically examines Latin American digital literature. First, it deals with the definition and main traits of electronic literature, arguing that electronic literature represents not just the emergence of a new modality that can be confined to a corner or “niche” of literature, but, on the contrary, an interrogation of the ontology of literature. Second, it discusses the specificity of Latin American digital writing. While some scholars claim that electronic literature is essentially a global phenomenon detached from the location where it is produced, others argue that “locatedness” is fundamental. The adjective “Latin American” should be understood as describing the dialogues that these works establish with central Latin American issues and concerns as well as their engagement with a cultural tradition that is considered as belonging/specific to the region. After presenting a brief genealogy of electronic literature in Latin America, the final part of the chapter analyzes four digital works that can be considered as canonical, or at least representative of a plurality of forms that characterizes electronic literature: Gabriella Infinita by Colombian author Jaime Alejandro Rodríguez; Grita by the Peruvian poet José Aburto; The IP Poetry Project by Argentinean artist Gustavo Romano; and The 27th/El 27 by the Mexican artist Eugenio Tisselli.
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This article discusses the imaginary that digital memories are 'placeless', which refers to the notion that, among the changes that memory has experienced under the impact of digital media, one is the loss of a significant link to place.... more
This article discusses the imaginary that digital memories are 'placeless', which refers to the notion that, among the changes that memory has experienced under the impact of digital media, one is the loss of a significant link to place. I contend that digital memories are not placeless memories, but, on the contrary, that place is central for digital memory work. Drawing on the concept of 'performation', I seek to demonstrate how place is created, executed and staged in the digital ecology. To illustrate this, I analyse two works of the research agency Forensic Architecture, 'Hannibal in Rafah' and 'Saydnaya: Inside A Syrian Torture Prison', in which 'place' plays a central role in the shaping of digital memory. Digital media's 'inherently archival' nature acquires a different meaning in these works: it is the process of collecting and mapping the dispersed fragments of data that transforms the archive into memory.
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Este artículo analiza la novela Dos veces junio (2002) de Martín Kohan desde la teoría de los afectos. El narrador de Dos veces junio se caracteriza por la ausencia, la suspensión, la vacilación o la supresión de afectos. Asumiendo que... more
Este artículo analiza la novela Dos veces junio (2002) de Martín Kohan desde la teoría de los afectos. El narrador de Dos veces junio se caracteriza por la ausencia, la suspensión, la vacilación o la supresión de afectos. Asumiendo que las respuestas afectivas corresponden necesariamente al momento histórico y a la esfera de la cual emergen, el artículo explora esta desafección como un componente esencial del funcionamiento del régimen autoritario que la novela retrata. Así, se sostiene que el afecto es no solo esencial para iluminar una época histórica sino la manera en que el pasado pervive en el presente ya que las inscripciones afectivas son las depositarias del sentido más oculto
–y más original– de la memoria.
–y más original– de la memoria.
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In this article, we contrast the state-sponsored memory site Memorial a las Víctimas de la Violencia en México with the citizen memorial performed by the Iniciativa Bordando por la paz y la memoria: una víctima, un pañuelo on 1 December... more
In this article, we contrast the state-sponsored memory site Memorial a las Víctimas de la Violencia en México with the citizen memorial performed by the Iniciativa Bordando por la paz y la memoria: una víctima, un pañuelo on 1 December 2012. We argue that whereas the Memorial’s solidity, permanence, and strength embody the Mexican federal government’s insistence on denying the state’s responsibility for human rights abuses perpetrated within the framework of the so-called ‘war on drugs’, the flexibility and fragility of the 1 December citizen memorial and its dismantling during the riots on the same day attest to the performativity and contingency of memory-making processes. Furthermore, we claim that the break-up of the embroidery network that took place after 1 December shows that counter-memories are also arenas of dissent, insofar as debates on how to remember remain open and susceptible to conflicting views.
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Este artículo analiza la producción literaria sobre la dictadura argentina (1976–1983). En el primer apartado se revisa el concepto de “trauma cultural” propuesto por Jeffrey C. Alexander y el rol de la literatura en el proceso de... more
Este artículo analiza la producción literaria sobre la dictadura argentina
(1976–1983). En el primer apartado se revisa el concepto de “trauma cultural” propuesto por Jeffrey C. Alexander y el rol de la literatura en el proceso de construcción del trauma. El siguiente apartado aborda la centralidad del informe Nunca más como narrativa fundacional y su importancia como intertexto para las narraciones literarias que se publican a partir de 1983. Por último se analiza la producción literaria sobre la tortura y la desaparición proponiendo una división en cinco configuraciones: pática, realista, irónica, espectral, posmemorial.
(1976–1983). En el primer apartado se revisa el concepto de “trauma cultural” propuesto por Jeffrey C. Alexander y el rol de la literatura en el proceso de construcción del trauma. El siguiente apartado aborda la centralidad del informe Nunca más como narrativa fundacional y su importancia como intertexto para las narraciones literarias que se publican a partir de 1983. Por último se analiza la producción literaria sobre la tortura y la desaparición proponiendo una división en cinco configuraciones: pática, realista, irónica, espectral, posmemorial.
Este artículo analiza el trauma y la cultura digital, focalizándose en el blog Diario de una princesa montonera, de Mariana Eva Perez, que posteriormente se convirtió en libro impreso. Sostiene que, si lo digital ha implicado cambios... more
Este artículo analiza el trauma y la cultura digital, focalizándose en el blog Diario de una princesa montonera, de Mariana Eva Perez, que posteriormente se convirtió en libro impreso. Sostiene que, si lo digital ha implicado cambios sustanciales en la cultura, esto afecta también a la concepción del trauma. El artículo analiza la representación del ‘yo’ en el blog y cómo esta performance contradice la subjetividad descripta en el modelo psicoanalítico-postestructural del trauma. Luego de examinar la importancia de la comunidad y lo común, se aborda el espacio del blog como esfera pública/privada, interrogando el potencial democratizador que implica este espacio de representación. También se indaga en el conjunto de operaciones traductivas que implicó el pasaje de texto de un medio (blog) a otro medio (libro).
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Transnational Memories and the Practices of Global Justice in the Ayotzinapa case”. Jenny Wüstenberg & Aline Sierp (eds). Agency in Transnational Memory Politics. New York: Berghahn, 2020. 47- 67.
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El artículo analiza la novela Una muchacha muy bella (2013) de Julián López dentro del paradigma de la literatura postdictatorial argentina escrita por la segunda generación. Argumento que la novela de López plantea un desafío a la... more
El artículo analiza la novela Una muchacha muy bella (2013) de Julián López dentro del paradigma de la literatura postdictatorial argentina escrita por la segunda generación. Argumento que la novela de López plantea un desafío a la definición de este corpus. Sostengo que Una muchacha muy bella innova en tres aspectos cruciales: la particular posición enunciativa, el uso de la elegía como forma de memoria, y el rechazo a ser leída bajo las convenciones narrativas y tropológicas básicas de la ficción del trauma, lo que la convierte en una novela escrita (contra) el trauma. Como resultado de estas opciones estéticas, la novela no solo critica el sentido común de la memoria postdic-tatorial argentina sino que delinea un modo alternativo de pensar la relación entre trauma y narrativa cultural.
The article analyses the novel Una muchacha muy bella (2013) by Julián López within the paradigm of Argentine postdictatorial literature written by the second generation. I argue that López's novel issues a challenge to the definition of this corpus. I contend that Una muchacha muy bella innovates in three crucial aspects: the status of the narrator, the use of elegy as a form of memory, and the refusal to conform to the basic narrative and tropological conventions of trauma fiction, which transform it into an 'anti-trauma novel'. As a result of these aesthetic options, the novel not only critiques the common sense of Argentine postdictatorial memory but also outlines an alternative way of thinking about cultural narrative in relation to trauma. En la construcción de la memoria postdictatorial en Argentina la noción de 'familia' ha jugado un papel central. De acuerdo a Elizabeth Jelin (2010), la impor-tancia del vínculo biológico ha sido tanta que ha creado una jerarquía en torno a la propiedad del trauma, dando a las víctimas directas de la represión más Este proyecto ha recibido financiación del Consejo Europeo de Investigacion, en el Programa Marco de Investigación e Innovación de la Unión Europea Horizonte 2020 ('Digital Memories', Grant Agreement N° 677955). This article was published open access under a CC BY license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The article analyses the novel Una muchacha muy bella (2013) by Julián López within the paradigm of Argentine postdictatorial literature written by the second generation. I argue that López's novel issues a challenge to the definition of this corpus. I contend that Una muchacha muy bella innovates in three crucial aspects: the status of the narrator, the use of elegy as a form of memory, and the refusal to conform to the basic narrative and tropological conventions of trauma fiction, which transform it into an 'anti-trauma novel'. As a result of these aesthetic options, the novel not only critiques the common sense of Argentine postdictatorial memory but also outlines an alternative way of thinking about cultural narrative in relation to trauma. En la construcción de la memoria postdictatorial en Argentina la noción de 'familia' ha jugado un papel central. De acuerdo a Elizabeth Jelin (2010), la impor-tancia del vínculo biológico ha sido tanta que ha creado una jerarquía en torno a la propiedad del trauma, dando a las víctimas directas de la represión más Este proyecto ha recibido financiación del Consejo Europeo de Investigacion, en el Programa Marco de Investigación e Innovación de la Unión Europea Horizonte 2020 ('Digital Memories', Grant Agreement N° 677955). This article was published open access under a CC BY license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Este artículo examina el concepto de ‘memoria transnacional’ y su relevancia para el estudio de la memoria colectiva en el ámbito hispánico. Primero, exploro los términos teóricos usados para referir a una dimensión transnacional de la... more
Este artículo examina el concepto de ‘memoria transnacional’ y su relevancia para el estudio de la memoria colectiva en el ámbito hispánico. Primero, exploro los términos teóricos usados para referir a una dimensión transnacional de la memoria, tales como ‘travelling’, ‘multidirec-tional’, ‘cosmopolitan’ o ‘globital’ memory. Segundo, distingo entre diferentes modos de con-cebir lo transnacional: como ‘condición histórica’ o ‘perspectiva hermenéutica’, ‘circulación’ o ‘negociación’. Por último, luego de evaluar su pertinencia para el análisis del fenómeno de la desaparición en el ámbito hispánico, discuto el carácter legítimo de la apropiación de la figura del desaparecido en otros contextos diferentes del original.
Referencia: “Anacronismos históricos, potenciales políticos: la memoria transnacional de la desaparición en Latinoamérica”. Número monográfico “Estudios de memoria desde una perspectiva transnacional y transatlántica: potenciales y desafíos de una mirada comparativa”, Juan Carlos Cruz Suárez, José María Izquierdo, Claudia Jünke (eds). Memoria y Narración. Revista de estudios sobre el pasado conflictivo de sociedades y culturas contemporáneas 1 (2018): 14-30.
Referencia: “Anacronismos históricos, potenciales políticos: la memoria transnacional de la desaparición en Latinoamérica”. Número monográfico “Estudios de memoria desde una perspectiva transnacional y transatlántica: potenciales y desafíos de una mirada comparativa”, Juan Carlos Cruz Suárez, José María Izquierdo, Claudia Jünke (eds). Memoria y Narración. Revista de estudios sobre el pasado conflictivo de sociedades y culturas contemporáneas 1 (2018): 14-30.
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“Memorias sagradas, memorias profanas: Agamben y el discurso de lo sublime en la literatura postdictatorial argentina”. Revista Iberoamericana LXXXIV/263, abril-junio 2018. Dossier: “Configuraciones de lo sagrado en la literatura... more
“Memorias sagradas, memorias profanas: Agamben y el discurso de lo sublime en la literatura postdictatorial argentina”. Revista Iberoamericana LXXXIV/263, abril-junio 2018. Dossier: “Configuraciones de lo sagrado en la literatura contemporánea del Cono Sur”
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“Cultural Memory”. de Bloois, Joost, Stijn De Cauwer and Anneleen Masschelein (eds). 50 Key Terms in Contemporary Cultural Theory. Kalmthout: Pelckmans Pro, 2017. 102 – 107.
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The article explores the redefinition of the private/public dichotomy in Argentine Postdictatorial literature written by the second generation. It focuses on the analysis of Diario de una princesa montonera (2012) by Mariana Eva Pérez. I... more
The article explores the redefinition of the private/public dichotomy in Argentine Postdictatorial literature written by the second generation. It focuses on the analysis of Diario de una princesa montonera (2012) by Mariana Eva Pérez. I argue that the origin of this book, a blog written by Pérez under the same name, is crucial to understand the new configuration of private-public categories. After discussing the different senses that this dichotomy implies—in terms of citizenship and sociability—I focus on the analysis of the subject of enunciation in the Diary, the community to which it appeals, and the new sense of the political that results from these rhetorical strategies.
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“Pós-Nacional”. Coser, Stelamaris (ed). Viagens, deslocamentos, espaços: Conceitos críticos. Vitória: Editora da Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (EdUFES), 2016. 294-301.
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This article explores Witold Gombrowicz within the context of Argentine literature by focusing on a particular tradition, namely travel-writing. Travel-writing is a privileged realm to scrutinize the rhetorical strategies whereby... more
This article explores Witold Gombrowicz within the context of Argentine literature by focusing on a particular tradition, namely travel-writing. Travel-writing is a privileged realm to scrutinize the rhetorical strategies whereby Europeans have “othered” foreign cultures, a process raising questions about cultural encounters, otherness and national identity. The article compares Gombrowicz's depictions of Argentina as an “immature” country, with those of another contemporary traveller, the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset. Whereas Ortega y Gasset is traditionally given the role of cultural referee in a culture which is thought to be inferior or minor, Gombrowicz makes the effort to dissolve that authority, deconstructing the Europe/central cultures, Latin America/secondary cultures opposition.
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The workshop aims to explore the reconfiguration of cultural memory under the impact of the digital turn. We are interested in grasping memory’s entanglement with artistic, activist and archival forces in a digital ecology. Questions that... more
The workshop aims to explore the reconfiguration of cultural memory under the impact of the digital turn. We are interested in grasping memory’s entanglement with artistic, activist and archival forces in a digital ecology. Questions that wil be addressed in the workshop include:
• How do digital technologies contribute to, or trigger, new forms of political and artistic activism?
• How can we conceptualise the distinction between ‘collective’ and ‘connective’ memory?
• How issue-based politics and the personalization of engagement that are characteristic of digital activism affect the shaping of collective memory?
• What are the new digital (transnational, interactive, connected) communities of memory? What is the role of affect in constituting networked communities?
• How is the notion of the ‘archive’ reconfigured under the impact of digital media? What kinds of ‘rogue archives’ are produced and socialise by artists and activists after the connective turn?
• What are the political and aesthetic challenges of outsourcing memory to digital infrastructures?
• Do different platforms provide distinct affordances for the construction of memory, or should we rather focus on genres of content and memory objects that migrate across platforms, making the distinction useless?
• What concepts, ideas, debates contribute to make sense of memory practices that are distributed between non-human/post-human and human agents?
• How do digital technologies contribute to, or trigger, new forms of political and artistic activism?
• How can we conceptualise the distinction between ‘collective’ and ‘connective’ memory?
• How issue-based politics and the personalization of engagement that are characteristic of digital activism affect the shaping of collective memory?
• What are the new digital (transnational, interactive, connected) communities of memory? What is the role of affect in constituting networked communities?
• How is the notion of the ‘archive’ reconfigured under the impact of digital media? What kinds of ‘rogue archives’ are produced and socialise by artists and activists after the connective turn?
• What are the political and aesthetic challenges of outsourcing memory to digital infrastructures?
• Do different platforms provide distinct affordances for the construction of memory, or should we rather focus on genres of content and memory objects that migrate across platforms, making the distinction useless?
• What concepts, ideas, debates contribute to make sense of memory practices that are distributed between non-human/post-human and human agents?
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The aim of this seminar is to increase understanding of the human rights situation on the ground in Mexico, while also examining the possibilities and challenges for the adoption of transitional justice mechanisms and how these could... more
The aim of this seminar is to increase understanding of the human rights situation on the ground in Mexico, while also examining the possibilities and challenges for the adoption of transitional justice mechanisms and how these could contribute to alleviating the current human rights crisis and strengthen the rule of law in Mexico.
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The Struggle for the Past: How We Construct Social Memories is the English-language edition of the book La lucha por el pasado: Cómo construimos la memoria social, originally published in Spanish in 2017 as an anthology of Elizabeth... more
The Struggle for the Past: How We Construct Social Memories is the English-language edition of the book La lucha por el pasado: Cómo construimos la memoria social, originally published in Spanish in 2017 as an anthology of Elizabeth Jelin's work published over 30 years of research. The Argentine sociologist is one of the leading figures in the field of memory studies in Latin America. Jelin played a central role in the emergence and consolidation of the field in the region, which, despite stemming from European and Anglo-Saxon theoretical reflections, has acquired its own unique characteristics. In the Southern Cone, particularly in Argentina, memory became an object of academic interest in the mid-1990s, inextricably linked to the regional context. Since the 1980s, the Southern Cone countries-Argentina, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil-had been undergoing complex healing processes and were initiating difficult democratic transitions as a consequence of ruthless dictatorships that ravaged the region. Within this framework marked by continuous debates about how to deal with the recent past, social actors began to incorporate memory as part of their political demands. As Jelin points out, in this scenario two opposing views emerged: on the one hand, there were those who advocated for reconciliation and oblivion as indispensable to strengthen the fragile democracies recently restored. On the other hand, there were those who claimed that memory was the necessary antidote to the potential repetition of the horrors of the recent past. "Memory, truth, and justice," a slogan of the Argentinean human rights movement, condenses these claims, giving remembrance of the recent past a preponderant place in the social struggle. The academic interest in memory arises, therefore, not as an interest "distanced" from its object-both in the sense of a pretended scientific objectivity as well as that of a clear separation between past and present-but in a permanent dialogue with the social actors who express their demands, with the debates in the public sphere, and the meanings constructed as result of these disputes. As Jelin claims, "at that time, the guiding idea [in academia] was to intervene in the intellectual field across the region, in order to advance topics and questions for research, reflection, and citizenship action. The challenge was to develop a conceptual model and engage in rigorous research on processes that had taken place very recently and those still underway" (p. 77).