The Fabric of Memory

3 units

In this seminar, we will critically examine how specific historical events from the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries appear documented and transformed as they circulate between oral narratives, journalism, archives, memoirs, literature, film, visual culture, and sound. In the first part of the course, we will examine approaches to the production of memory; in the second part we will consider several case studies from the Hispanophone world; all materials are available in translation. Among others, we will discuss Cristina Rivera’s Garza search for justice for her sister in Liliana’s Invincible Summer , a crime committed in 1928 in Níjar (Andalusia), which then became the source of Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding , a flamenco choreography and two films; clandestine border crossings; or the atrocities committed in a detention site in Santiago de Chile. We will pay close attention to genre and form in relation to theoretical perspectives on memory, voice, and agency.