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Ricardo Piglia’s The Absent City

Oppressed Memories Unearthed

Miami Dade College

The Argentine novelist Ricardo Piglia’s The Absent City reflects upon the retrieval of the past as a prerequisite for healing from national trauma. If postdictatorship countries are to implement a transition to democracy, their citizens must confront the past. The denial of national trauma perpetuates tyranny. Taken together, the many fragmented stories in Piglia’s novel can be viewed as a metaphor for the process of retrieving a repressed history. The central trope of the novel is Elena, a gendered machine made responsible for integrating Argentina’s past dissociations and making healing possible.

Key Words: National trauma • Traumatic memories • Argentina • Latin American literature • Tyranny

Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 36, No. 5, 108-120 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0094582X09341983


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