Survivor Song: the Voice of Trauma and Its Echoes
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University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 1-1-2011 Survivor Song: The Voice of Trauma and Its Echoes Jennifer Rinaldi University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, and the Latin American History Commons Recommended Citation Rinaldi, Jennifer, "Survivor Song: The Voice of Trauma and Its Echoes" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 552. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/552 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. SURVIVOR SONG: THE VOICE OF TRAUMA AND ITS ECHOES __________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities University of Denver __________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy __________ by Jennifer Rinaldi June 2011 Advisor: W. Scott Howard ©Copyright by Jennifer Rinaldi 2011 All Rights Reserved Author: Jennifer Rinaldi Title: SURVIVOR SONG: THE VOICE OF TRAUMA AND ITS ECHOES Advisor: W. Scott Howard Degree Date: June 2011 Abstract For societies and cultures that experience mass torture and trauma, giving voice to the story of what happened is significant for both the specific individuals who have survived or witnessed the trauma, and the culture that is forced to process it and incorporate the experience into its collective identity. Testimonial literature that resulted from the detention and torture of desaparecidos under the military dictatorship in Argentina in the 1970s and 80s, and the genocide of the Armenian people in 1915, reveals many different approaches in the ways that people write about torture and trauma. In attempting to find a voice to describe trauma, which is inherently indescribable, accounts range from factual histories to artistic endeavors intended to capture the truth of the experience being related. For many survivors, telling their stories is an act of resistance against the perpetrators’ attempts to silence them. Examining the voices of survivors and witnesses in the context of literary trauma theory and historiography allows the story itself to be considered in terms of the implications that it has for both those who tell it, and those who hear it. In the aftermath of trauma, the generations descending from the survivors are deeply affected by how the story of trauma has been transmitted through their families and cultures. It has powerful implications for both individual and collective identity, and this is vividly displayed in the gestures of memorialization, literature, and personal perspectives of those who live in post-traumatic cultures. ii Acknowledgements Thank you to Professor Lydia Gil-Keff for not only inspiring this work, but also supporting it every step of the way. iii Table of Contents Foreword ............................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER 1 ..................................................................................................................... 10 Torture................................................................................................................... 15 The Need to Tell ................................................................................................... 24 Representations of Torture .................................................................................... 29 Nunca Más ................................................................................................ 29 The Little School....................................................................................... 34 Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number .................................. 38 A Single, Numberless Death ..................................................................... 40 That Inferno .............................................................................................. 42 Honoring the Past, Creating a Future .................................................................... 47 CHAPTER 2 ..................................................................................................................... 48 Speaking for the Silenced, Women Find Their Voices ......................................... 49 The Arpilleristas........................................................................................ 52 Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo .............................................................. 55 Empowerment ....................................................................................................... 56 The Writers ........................................................................................................... 59 Alicia Partnoy ........................................................................................... 61 Nora Strejilevich ....................................................................................... 66 To Not Forget ........................................................................................................ 69 CHAPTER 3 ..................................................................................................................... 70 Re-Visioning the Trauma of the Shoah: The Resonating Echoes......................... 70 Castel-Bloom's Dolly City .................................................................................... 71 Semel's And the Rat Laughed ............................................................................... 80 Echoes of The Shoah Continue to Be Heard ........................................................ 90 CHAPTER 4 ..................................................................................................................... 92 The Armenian Genocide: Voices That Echo Across a Century ........................... 93 The History: The Events That Made Genocide Possible ...................................... 95 The Genocide: Accounts from Witnesses and Survivors ................................... 107 Rounding Up the Leaders ....................................................................... 114 Eliminating the Men ............................................................................... 118 Deportations ............................................................................................ 125 The Burdens of the Mothers ................................................................... 132 Rape ........................................................................................................ 136 Corpses .................................................................................................... 141 The Plight, and Flight, of the Children ................................................... 144 The Aftermath ..................................................................................................... 154 iv Carrying the Scars ................................................................................... 154 Distillation of the Stories ........................................................................ 159 Un-Fairy Tales: There Was, and There Was Not ................................... 164 The Burden of the Past ............................................................................ 167 Construction of a Modern Identity and Culture ...................................... 172 Restitution and Resolution ...................................................................... 177 Why They Tell the Story......................................................................... 180 CHAPTER 5 ................................................................................................................... 182 Memorializing Trauma: Giving Memory Its Voice ............................................ 183 Argentina Remembers ........................................................................................ 184 Performative Commemorations .............................................................. 186 Club Atlético ........................................................................................... 188 ESMA ..................................................................................................... 189 Parque de la Memoria ............................................................................. 192 Holocaust Memorials .......................................................................................... 194 Armenians Still Struggle With Memory ............................................................. 199 Cultural Memory ................................................................................................. 200 Survivor Song ..................................................................................................... 201 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 204 v Foreword My experience with trauma, particularly that of war, initially came to me through art. Only the most sheltered of people can claim such a thing, but that is my truth. My fancy, Connecticut private-school experience included acting in the school plays, and earning the