Currently Latin America experiences a phenomenon of widely varying levels of violence across the region. Many countries, such as El Salvador and Honduras, have exceptionally high murder rates upwards of 40 homicides per 100,000 people (UNODC 2015). Other countries, such as Uruguay and Argentina, have relatively low rates, below 10 homicides per 100,000 people (UNODC 2015). I believe this variation stems from the use of pro-government militias specifically employed in the past by military governments as tools of suppression. Under the guise of combating subversive elements within their countries, these groups were used to silence and repress those who opposed the military governments. Employing civilians, active military, police officers and high-ranking government officials; these groups often carried clandestine and sometimes public ties to their governments. By examining the origins, afterlives, and level of control exerted over these pro-government militias in Argentina and El Salvador; this study aims to understand the role these groups played in the dispersion of violence throughout society ultimately accounting for the variation we see today.

No description available.

No description available.

The object of this thesis is to study the attempts made by writers and filmmakers in two very different socio-cultural contexts to depict and elucidate the experience of political violence, particularly torture, in the periods 1954-1962 and 1976-1983. I seek to apply the hypotheses of Anglo-American and French theorists with an interest in historical representation, as well as trauma, to both 'realist' and experimental accounts of the widespread oppression that occurred during the Algerian war of independence and later during the so-called 'Dirty War' in Argentina. The texts analysed in detail include novels and short stories by Kateb Yacine, Assia Djebar, Julio Cortázar and Luisa Valenzuela; the films I examine most closely are the Algerian-Italian 'docudrama' La Bataille d'Alger and the Argentine melodrama La historia oficial. However, the thesis also addresses other non-factual portrayals of brutality, such as the Nouvelle Vague's meditations on decolonization, and autobiographical writings, such as military memoirs and survivors' testimony, as a means of elaborating more fully on the issues at stake in the works cited above. It explores the difficulty - and the possibility - of giving voice to histories that simultaneously resist and demand articulation, and ultimately, of reconstituting the fragmented or 'disappeared' subject through narrative: of using fiction to summon the 'ghosts' of the past.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att diskutera några av de minnespraktiker i efterdiktaturens Argentina som behandlar det kollektiva minnet av det Smutsiga Kriget och de som blev utsatta för tvångsförsvinnande. Praktikerna som studerats är Madres de Plaza de Mayo, minnesplatser upprättade i före detta fångläger och Parque de la Memoria. Uppsatsen anknyter till ett teoretiskt ramverk för kollektivt minne och kollektivt trauma, minnesmuseer och materiell kultur. Studien har utformats som en fallstudie. Materialet består av observationer, intervjuer och fotografier insamlade under fältarbete i Argentina 2017. Madres de Plaza de Mayo analyserades genom att använda teorier om lieux de mémoire framförda av Pierre Nora och minnesceremonier framförda av Paul Connerton. Minnesplatserna studerades utifrån ett minnesmuseumsperspektiv med hjälp av teorier av Paul Williams. Parque de la Memoria studerades utifrån teorier om krigsmonument framförda av Jay Williams. Madres de Plaza de Mayo kan förstås som lieu de mémoire eftersom de i sina artikulationer och aktioner är materiella, symboliska och funktionella. Genom dem bevaras de försvunna vid liv. Minnesplatserna presenterar ett mer ambivalent narrativ som placerar de försvunna i limbo. Parque de la Memoria är en plats för sorg och för att offentligt hedra dem som föll offer under det Smutsiga Kriget. Kontexten som dessa praktiker befinner sig i är komplex och de olika praktikerna uttrycker tre olika narrativ över de försvunna, som sträcker över spektrumet från liv till död. Detta är en tvåårig mastersuppsats i ämnet musei- och kulturarvsvetenskap / The purpose of this thesis is to discuss some of the memory-practices in post-dictatorial Argentina regarding the collective memory of the Dirty War and the people who were objects of forced disappearances. The practices studied are Madres de Plaza de Mayo, sites of memory established in former centres of detention and Parque de la Memoria. The thesis draws upon the theoretical framework of collective memory and collective trauma, memorial museums and material culture. The study was formed as a case study. The materials are observations, interviews and photographs, and were gathered through field work in Argentina in 2017. The Madres de Plaza de Mayo were analysed using theories on lieux de mémoire brought forward by Pierre Nora and commemoration ceremonies brought forward by Paul Connerton. The sites of memory were studied out of the perspective on memorial museums by Paul Williams. Parque de la Memoria was studied with theories on war memorials by Jay Winter. The Madres de Plaza de Mayo can be interpreted as lieu de mémoire due to their material, symbolic and functional dimensions. Through them, the disappeared are alive. The sites of memory present an ambivalent narrative. The narrative of the disappeared is that of a state of limbo. Parque de la Memoria is a park of mourning, placing the disappeared in a narrative of death. The situation of memory-practices in post-dictatorial Argentina is complex and the practices articulates three different narratives of the disappeared, ranging from life to death. This is a two-year master’s thesis in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies