University of Wisconsin-Madison Fall 2009

Spanish 468: Writing, Righting and Marketing: Latin American Memory and
Human Rights
Professor: Ksenija Bilbija
office 1070 Van Hise 262-9663 o 262-2093; 209 Ingraham (LACIS)
e-mail: kbilbija@wisc.edu
office hours: W 11-11.50 and by appointment
class list address: spanish468-1-f09@lists.wisc.edu

This course approaches the representation of Latin American human rights issues in
literary and visual texts such as short stories, novels, plays, testimonials, fiction films,
documentaries as well as memory museums, monuments, photographic exhibits,
advertisements and souvenirs. The examination of literary and cultural sublimations of
the collective and individual trauma will focus on the Southern Cone countries,
Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. It will pose three questions in relation to the construction
of post-traumatic memory in Latin America: what is being remembered, when and how.
Memory is a field of perpetual contestation to give meaning to traumas, dreams and
frustrations experienced by the subjects in language. One of the Argentine government
officials during the most recent dictatorship (1976-1983) argued the importance of
amnesty laws for the death squads by declaring that a nation creates itself not just with
what it remembers, but with what it forgets. So, we will delve into the cultural and
literary mamoryscapes in order to decipher what remains in the discursive and visual
narratives of past human rights abuses.
The discussions will develop around three broad categories that emerge in marketing
efforts: memoryscapes (places that can be visited by consumers of the media product
such as museums, monuments, sites of atrocity, cemeteries…), mediascapes (memory
marketed by technologies of representation such as TV programs, advertisements, films,
songs, testimonials, fiction) and memorabilia (cultural artifacts, souvenirs, replicas of
objects or language from the past that is invoked in the present).
We will find illustrations for our discussions in: fictional texts by Luisa Valenzuela, Eric
Stener Carlson, Norah Strejilevich; visual and artistic products by Marcelo Brodsky’s
Buena Memoria, Memory Under Construction and Nexo; Marco Bechis’ Garage Olimpo,
Albertina Carri’s documentary Los rubios and memorial projects Parque de la memoria
in Buenos Aires, Villa Grimaldi in Santiago; theater productions and performances such
as those by Ariel Dorfman, Eduardo Pavlovsky, Teatroxidentidad, escraches, funas,
madres and abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo; controversial advertising by Diesel and Ripley
companies that use images of torture to sell jeans in post-authoritarian Chile and
Argentina among others.
The course will also explore how naming human rights concerns found in literary and
cultural texts can help us to teach and engage more ethically with literature and culture in
the current global context.

Course requirements:

One oral presentation; (15') this presentation should be discussed with the professor
prior to delivery. Students will sign up for the topic at the beginning of the semester and
one week prior to the presentation date bring the outline to the professor. Professor will
either return the outline with comments before the next class or student can discuss
his/her outline during the office hours. The final version of the outline should be sent to
the class list at least 24 hours before the class in which it will be delivered. Each student
should print his/her version of the presentation outline and bring it to class. Only that
outline and the text that is being discussed can be used during the presentation; if the
student fails to hand in the outline the grade will be reduced. The presentation should not
be read to the class and a hard copy of the presentation should be handed-in the day of
the presentation. The presentation will be interrupted if the student is reading it.
2 exams (October 15, December 1)
Attend one lecture on human rights related topic (essay must be handed in within a
week after the lecture has been delivered)
Paper (8-10 pp.) The paper will be a written essay where each student will analyze a text
of his/her choice but not discussed in class; November 17--bring the title, a short thesis
and three entries of annotated bibliography; the bibliographical entries should be closely
related to your research project; November 24—exchange your draft with the assigned
person who will give you suggestions; December 1 —hand in final version; December
3- 10 --short presentation of the paper research and a brief discussion by the peer
reviewer; I would like the presenter of the paper to talk for about 5-7 min about the
project: original thesis, how it changed (if it changed), how secondary bibliography
represented the topic of research and writing, and what is your final argument . You can
use brief examples to support your argument. After that, a respondent will talk for 2-3
min. about your project and if there are questions from others we can take care of that in
some 2-3 min. I will have read your paper for the discussion and I will also make
comments. Then I will evaluate your presentation and include that evaluation in the
evaluation of the written portion (paper). Graded paper will be returned during the
following class. Final package is due on December 1 and it should contain the following
elements: proposal with my comments, first draft, peer-review sheet filled by the peer
who read your story, copy of the essay read by the peer and the final version of your
paper (on top of the package).

Evaluation:
oral presentation 20 %
exams (2) 40 %
active class participation 10%
book review and one lecture summary 10%
final paper and presentation 20 %

Primary Readings:

Luz Arce, Inferno: A Story of Terror and Survival in Chile (Living in Latin America)
(Paperback) UW Press
Ariel Dorfman, La muerte y la doncella, Argentina: Ediciones de la flor, 1992
Marguerite Feitlowitz, Lexicon of Terror: Argentina and the Legacies of Torture, New
York and Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998
Eduardo Pavlovsky, Paso de dos, Buenos Aires: Ediciones Ayllu, 1989
Eric Stener Carlson, I Remember Julia: Voices of the Disappeared
Nora Strejilevich, Una sola muerte numerosa
Luisa Valenzuela, Novela negra con Argentinos, Barcelona: Plaza y Janes, 1990

Fourth credit (readings):

Marcelo Brodsky, Memory Under Construction (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)
Beatriz Sarlo, Tiempo pasado: Cultura de la memoria y giro subjetivo. Una discussion
Marcelo Brodsky, Buena memoria,
http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/brodsky/puente/hall.html
Marcelo Brodsky, Nexo
Filmografía de los derechos humanos

Evaluation (4th. Credit):

oral presentation 15 %
exams (2) 30 %
active class participation 10%
book review and one lecture summary 10%
final paper and presentation 20 %
weekly writing & research assignments 15%

Syllabus:

September 3: Introduction to the course material, requirements and deadlines;

mediascapes, memoryscapes and memorabilia

September 8: Historical and cultural background of Argentine and Chilean state violence

Readings:
Readings:
Elizabeth Jelin, ¿De qué hablamos cuando hablamos de memorias?
(electronic PDF file))
Antonius Robben, “How Traumatized Societies Remember: The Aftermath of
Argentina’s Dirty War” (electronic PDF file)
Norbert Lechner y Pedro Güell (electronic PDF file) “Construcción social de las
memorias en la transición Chilena”

September 10: Human Rights 2.0: Una historia en tiempo presente

Articulating trauma through writing and other manifestations of culture; the case of
Argentina; issues of narrative power and agency; translating the individual trauma into
language; what is told and what is silenced

Readings:
Marguerite Feitlowitz, Lexicon of Terror;
Writing assignment: book review (3-4 pp.) of Lexicon of Terror

September 15: Mediascapes: Testimonios: Issues of testimonial pact;

Readings:
Nora Strejilevich, “Testimony: Beyond the Language of Truth” (electronic PDF file);
Nora Strejilevich, Una sola muerte numerosa

September 17: Mediascapes: Testimonios: Reading and writing the individual and
collective self

Readings:
Dominick LaCapra, “Interview for Yad Vashem” Writing History, Writing Trauma 141-
180; (electronic PDF file)
Connerton, Paul “How Societies Remember” (electronic PDF file)

September 22: Mediascapes: Testimonios/Confessions

discussion on testimonial discourse and issues of witnessing, transcription of memory,
ethics of testimony, trauma and communicability, reparations; on translating trauma and
reconstructing the self

Readings
Luz Arce El Infierno
Stanley Milgram, “The Perils of Obedience” 606-618; (electronic PDF file)

September 24: Mediascapes: on translating trauma and reconstructing the self

Readings
Luz Arce El Infierno
Susan Sontag, “Ante el dolor de los demás” (electronic PDF file)

September 29: Mediascapes: Reconstructing the past through forensic analysis and
privileging the voice of many witnesses

Readings:
Eric Stener Carlson, I Remember Julia: Voices of the Disappeared

October 1: Mediascapes: Human Rights Today in Argentina

October 6: Mediascapes: Modes of remembering: Acting out and working through;
Embodiment of the trauma and the trauma of writing …. with the body

Readings:
Luisa Valenzuela, Novela negra con Argentinos
Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco, “Speaking of the Unspeakable: Toward a Psychological
Understanding of Responses to Terror” (Electronic PDF file)

October 8: Mediascapes: Cartonera publishers conference: Human Rights issues

Chilean Animita Cartonera as a legacy of dictatorship: through economy and editorial

politics? Eloísa Cartonera as a product of dictatorship economy

Readings:
Jane Griffin, “Animita Cartonera: the Body and Soul of Literary Production in
Contemporary Chile” (Electronic PDF file)

October 13: Mediascapes: Return of the repressed

Readings:
Luisa Valenzuela, Novela negra con Argentinos

October 15: Exam 1

October 20: Mediascapes: Representations of torture and cinema as witness

Viewing:
Marco Bechis Garage Olimpo

Readings: Amy Kaminsky “Marco Bechis’ Garage Olimpo: Cinema of Wintess”

(electronic in PDF file)

October 22: Mediascapes: Tortured by Fashion: Making Memory Through Advertising

Viewing:
Ripley and Diesel/ photographs (electronic in PDF file)

October 27: Chilean Human Rights Issues today

October 29: Mediascapes Fictional, Theatrical renditions: Testimonios/Confessions

Readings and viewing:

Ariel Dorfman La muerte y la doncella
Film Death and a Maiden by Roman Polanski (1994)

November 3: Mediascapes: Performing the unsaid and the unspeakable;

Readings:
Eduardo Pavlovsky Paso de dos
Diana Taylor “Spectacular Bodies: Gender, Terror and Argentina’s Dirty War”
(electronic PDF file)
Marguerite Feitlowitz “A Dance of Death: Eduardo Pavlovsky’s Paso de dos” (electronic
PDF file)

November 5: Mediascapes: Telling of those who have no personal memory of trauma;

Intergenerational memory;

Readings:
Gabriella Nouzeilles “Postmemory Cinema and the Future of Past in Albertina Carri’s
Los rubios” (electronic PDF file)

Viewing:
Los rubios by Albertina Carri

November 10: Mediascapes: Visual articulations of trauma by the “next” generation;

escraches, funas

Readings:
Taylor, “You are here: The DNA of performance” (electronic PDF file)
Marianne Hirsch, “The Generation of Postmemory” (electronic PDF file)

November 12: Memoryscapes: Monumental memory

Readings:
Elizabet Jelin y Victoria Langland “Las marcas territoriales como nexo entre pasado y
presente” (electronic PDF file)
Hugo Achugar “El lugar de la memoria” A propósito de monumentos (Motivos y
paréntesis” (electronic PDF file)
November 17: Memoryscapes: Memory Sites: El parque de la memoria and ESMA in
Buenos Aires

Readings:
Nancy Gates Madsen, Marketing and Sacred Space: The Parque de la Memoria in
Buenos Aires; http://users.polisci.wisc.edu/tjdb/memory/
Login and password are both: memory
Susana Draper, “Consuming the Past?: Marketplace, Memory, and Site (Punta
Carretas, ESMA, and Olimpo) http://users.polisci.wisc.edu/tjdb/memory/
Login and password are both: memory
Andreas Huyssen, “En busca del tiempo futuro” (electronic PDF file)

Writing:
Bring the title, a short thesis and three entries of annotated bibliography; the
bibliographical entries should be closely related to your research project

November 19: Memoryscapes: Trauma Tourism In Latin America: Villa Grimaldi en

Santiago

Readings:
Clark and Payne, Trauma Tourism in Latin America
http://users.polisci.wisc.edu/tjdb/memory/
Login and password are both: memory

November 24: Memorabilia: What gets produced; What do tourists want

Readings:
Susana Kaiser, Memory (Not) for Sale: The Production and Consumption of Memory
Products in Argentina 1-40; http://users.polisci.wisc.edu/tjdb/memory/
Login and password are both: memory

Writing: exchange your draft with the assigned person who will give you suggestions

November 26: Thanksgiving

December 1: EXAM 2

Writing: Hand in the final paper: should contain the following elements in the same
order: proposal with my comments, first draft, peer-review sheet filled by the peer who
read your story, copy of the essay read by the peer and the final version of your paper (on
top of the package).
December 3: research paper discussion and presentation

December 8: research paper discussion and presentation

December 10: research paper discussion and presentation

December 15: Human Rights in Latin America: Ethical engagements with literature and
culture in the current global context.