Seidel, Katja (2014) The Power of Absence: An Ethnography of Justice, Memories of Genocide, and Political Activism of a New Generation in Post-Transitional Argentina. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
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Abstract
For 30 years human rights groups have struggled for justice in Argentina. ‘We are
born in their struggle and they live in ours’, thus goes the mantra of the second
generation activists. In 1995, hijos, the children of the disappeared, murdered,
unlawfully imprisoned and exiled victims of the 1976-83 civil-military dictatorship,
decided to participate and created the association H.I.J.O.S. (Children for Identity
and Justice, against Oblivion and Silence). Coming to the field in 2010, I arrived into
a context radicalized through activism, campaigning, and a heightened level of legal
activity in a temporality of post-transitional, pro-human rights. In this symbolic,
discursive, and legal space of justice members of H.I.J.O.S. demonstrate why the
violent past counts as genocide and promise not to forgive, not to forget, nor to
reconcile. With their activism during the Escrache – H.I.J.O.S.’ practice of social
condemnation and street justice – and in the current trials for crimes against
humanity, the second generation strives to recover their disappeared parents’
political identity and create their own belonging from absence.
This thesis presents a detailed ethnographic reading of the dynamics of justice in posttransitional
Argentina. Pursuant to complex and sometimes conflicting research on
the nature of these concepts, this thesis focuses thus on the meaning and impact of
H.I.J.O.S.’ struggle over the past 18 years. The theoretical cornerstone of the work is
an interrogation of the way in which post-memories are constructed, lived, and
negotiated by members of the second generation thereby a demonstration of the
productive quality of genocide and absence that bears new ontologies and political
subjectivities. In holding an ethnographic mirror up to these experiences and hijos’
political agency, this thesis goes beyond prevailing studies of transitional justice and
genocide and explores the productivity and creative power of violence unleashed by
activated post memories. With the concept of ‘absence’ as a motor for justice this
thesis shows how hijos use their post memories to subvert a traumatic heritage and
regain ownership of justice.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
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Keywords: | Power of Absence: Ethnography of Justice; Genocide; Political Activism; New Generation; Post-Transitional Argentina; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Anthropology |
Item ID: | 5612 |
Depositing User: | IR eTheses |
Date Deposited: | 12 Dec 2014 15:38 |
URI: | https://mu.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/5612 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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