Synopses & Reviews
Peruand#39;s Truth and Reconciliation Commission not only documented the political violence of the 1980s and 1990s but also gave Peruvians a unique opportunity to examine the causes and nature of that violence. In
Art from a Fractured Past, scholars and artists expand on the commissionand#39;s work, arguing for broadening the definition of the testimonial to include various forms of artistic production as documentary evidence. Their innovative focus on representation offers new and compelling perspectives on how Peruvians experienced those years and how they have attempted to come to terms with the memories and legacies of violence. Their findings about Peru offer insight into questions of art, memory, and truth that resonate throughout Latin America in the wake of andquot;dirty warsandquot; of the last half century. Exploring diverse works of art, including memorials, drawings, theater, film, songs, painted wooden retablos (three-dimensional boxes), and fiction, including an acclaimed graphic novel, the contributors show that art, not constrained by literal truth, can generate new opportunities for empathetic understanding and solidarity.
Contributors. Ricardo Caro Candaacute;rdenas, Jesanduacute;s Cossio, Ponciano del Pino, Cynthia M. Garza, Edilberto Jandiacute;menez Quispe, Cynthia E. Milton, Jonathan Ritter, Luis Rossell, Steve J. Stern, Marandiacute;a Eugenia Ulfe, Vandiacute;ctor Vich, Alfredo Villar
and#160;
Review
andquot;Cynthia E. Milton's stunning, inter-disciplinary collection illuminates how art intervenes in the memory of politics and the politics of memory in post-civil conflict Peru.andquot;andmdash;Diana Taylor, author of The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas
Review
andquot;This is a fascinating collection of essays about individual and collective memories in the aftermath of the violence that plagued Peru from 1980 until the mid-1990s. One of the richest collections available on the workings of memory in post-traumatic societies, it illuminates the complex and changing ways in which people recall and represent their experiences with violence, war, human rights violations, silencing, and exclusion.andquot;andmdash;Carlos Aguirre, author of The Criminals of Lima and Their Worlds: The Prison Experience, 1850andndash;1935
Review
andquot;Are there limits to representation? Is it possible to convey experiences that were unbearable, unspeakable, and inhuman? This collection's presentation and discussion of grounded, micro-level studies of Peruvian artistic representations show that in spite of all, people can and do express their feelings about violence and horror.andquot;andmdash;Elizabeth Jelin, author of State Repression and the Labors of Memory
Synopsis
Art from a Fractured Past is an interdisciplinary collection examining how Peruvians are representing, and attempting to make sense of, the violence of the 1980s and 1990s through art, including drawings, monuments, fiction, theater, and cinema.
About the Author
Cynthia E. Milton is Canada Research Chair and Associate Professor of Latin American History at the Universitandeacute; de Montrandeacute;al. She is the author of
The Many Meanings of Poverty: Colonialism, Social Compacts, and Assistance in Eighteenth-Century Ecuador and a coeditor of
Curating Difficult Knowledge: Violent Pasts in Public Places and
The Art of Truth-Telling about Authoritarian Rule.
Table of Contents
Introduction. Art from Peru's Fractured Past / Cynthia E. Milton
Part One. Visual Representations of Recent Pasts
1. Images of Truth: Rescuing Memories of Peru's Internal War through Testimonial Art / Cynthia E. Milton
2. Chungui: Ethnographic Drawings of Violence and Traces of Memory / Edilberto Jimand#233;nez Quispe
3. Narrating Stories, Representing Memories: Retablos and Violence in Peru / Marand#237;a Eugenia Ulfe
Part Two. Telling Stories of Political Violence
4. Violence, Guilt, and Repetition: Alonso Cueto's Novel La Hora Azul / Vand#237;ctor Vich
5. Rupay: (Hi)stories of Political Violence in Peru, 1980and#8211;1984 / Luis Rossell, Alfredo Villar, and Jesand#250;s Cossio
6. Ayacuchano Cinema and the Filming of Violence: Interview with Palito Ortega Matute / Ponciano del Pino
Part Three. Performing a Fractured Past
7. Commemorative Paths in Sacsamarca / Ricardo Caro Cand#225;rdenas
8. Colliding with Memory: Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani's Sin Tand#237;tulo, Tand#233;cnica Mixta / Cynthia M. Garza
9. The andquot;Voice of the Victimsandquot;: Testimonial Songs in Rural Ayachucho / Jonathan Ritter
Afterword. The Artist's Truth: The Post-Auschwitz Predicament after Latin America's Age of Dirty Wars / Steve J. Stern
Bibliography
Contributors
Index