Considering Affect in Transitional Contexts

Abstract

I consider how the sustained focus on women’s affective memories can produce a different kind of narrative about processes and conditions of remembrance in Argentina over the past decades. I consider what sort of account of memory cultures in the post-dictatorial Argentina could be created if affective memories of trauma were to be used as a starting point. In direct contrast to the nominally objective and universalist sensibility that has traditionally driven transitional justice endeavours, I seek to understand the ways in which the affect generated by shared memories of trauma acts as an invisible yet potent cultural force—at times disruptive, but always generative—challenging the “reconciliation paradigm” and subtly recasting public conversations about the nation’s past and present. I want to know what it would mean to reimagine memorial culture as well as to explore some of the key notions around transitional justice within the framework that incorporates ideas and theories of affect.