This dissertation analyzes testimonial accounts by female survivors of the last dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983) in the form of cultural productions that started to appear from the 1990s to the first decade of the 2000s. In my dissertation, I examine how representations of traumatic memories change over time, and are affected by the gender of the witness. Furthermore, I study the way in which women survivors move from the position of the victim to that of the witness, constructing new subjectivities that strive to incorporate the traumatic past. My analyses show that womens testimonial accounts do not hide the silences and gaps that are present in all testimonies to the horror of traumatic experiences, but instead they put them to work so that these silences are transformed from merely mute to eloquent. Thus, calling the listener to hear these eloquent silences, and to respond to them ethically. By exploring this social and symbolic field, my dissertation affirms the transformative value of testimonial narratives both for the listener and the narrator, while contributes to the literary field of cultural studies by analyzing the testimonial accounts through the category of gender.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-09192014-102046 |
Date | 29 September 2014 |
Creators | Davidovich, Karin |
Contributors | Benigno Trigo, Ifeoma Nwankwo, Emanuelle K. Oliveira, Christina Karageorgou-Bastea |
Publisher | VANDERBILT |
Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | text |
Format | application/pdf |
Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-09192014-102046/ |
Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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