Memory and Democracy in Latin American A

This course examines the roles of various forms of artistic production in the ongoing struggles over historical memory and constitution (or reconstitution) of democracy in Latin America in the wake of brutal dictatorships and internal conflicts of the last 60 years, as well as the most recent authoritarian turns in the region. Through a country-based selections of case studies—from Mexico, through Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, to Peru and Colombia—we will examine practices that range from grassroots “artivism” and public-site interventions, through sanctioned and unsanctioned memorials and monuments, to official memory museums and “places of reconciliation.” We will consider how different artistic practices engage and mobilize different modes of memory—collective, official, public, counter, and living—and to what ends, and why. We will also think about longue dureé (that is, “long duration” as per the French historian Fernand Braudel) effects of the Spanish conquest, European colonialism, and elite nation-state formation, and their impacts on the contemporary battles over human rights, social justice, belonging, and citizenship. In addition to readings, class materials will include film, both documentary and fictional, providing an expanded insight into how different cultural forms shape and intervene into memory and history formation, and how those, in turn, constitute the imaginary and limits of “democracy.”