Memory and Art in Post-Dictatorship Argentina

What is the relation between political and social trauma and the arts? Can we think on artistic creation as a form of personal and collective resistance? How does art become a privileged and powerful medium that bear witness to the traumatic events of the past? This lecture will address these questions and the responses that through artistc creation are given to the complex issues of violence, memory and its subjective and social dimension after Argentina´s last and most brutal dictatorship (1976-1983). Focusing on visual art, film and literature, Prof. Evangelista will discuss not only the impact of trauma and the legacy of memory, but also how to envision them as productive experiences that are truly indispensable when attempting at rebuild selves and society.

Liria Evangelista is a writer, literary critic and university professor. She obtained her licenciatura in Literature from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Liria holds and M.A. and a Ph.D from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She designed the course Writing for Linguistic and Cultural Competence for Middlebury Study Abroad Program in Montevideo and Buenos Aires, where she also teaches. Since 2012, Liria works as On-Site Academic Director for Middlebury School of Spanish Graduate Program in Argentina