The Unbearable Lightness of Bones

Memory, Emotion, and Pedagogy in Patricio Guzmán'sChile, La Memoria ObstinadaandNostalgia De La Luz

Bibliographic Data

ID2170259
AuthorsBrad Epps (corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume26
Issue4
Pages483-502
Publication date2017-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Latin American Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1356-9325 • E-ISSN: 1469-9575
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13569325.2016.1229661
OpenAlexW2529292592
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited20

Focusing on two documentary films by Patricio Guzmán, Chile, Obstinate Memory (1997) and, especially, Nostalgia of the Light (2010), this paper examines some of the relations between neoliberal violence (during and after the Pinochet dictatorship), memory, knowledge and emotionality, both historical and personal. It does so by reading and reviewing the actions, narratives and experiences of a group of astronomers, archaeologists and geologists who work in the Atacama desert of northern Chile and a group of women who search for the remains of their loved ones, victims of political violence, in the same desert within the shifting contexts of cinematic spectatorship. Attentive to the possibilities and pitfalls of empathic identifications and connections, it also considers the ethical and political implications of the interplay of cinema (Guzmán), photography (Paula Allen) and poetry, sky writing and "land art" (Raúl Zurita

Aesthetics · Art · Democracy · Desert (philosophy · Dictatorship · Human rights · Humanities · Lightness · Linguistics · Literature · Movie theater · Narrative · Poetry · Political science · Politics · Reading (process · Torture · Visual arts · History · Latin American Literature Studies · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Philosophy · Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America