In: HeLix - Dossiers zur romanischen Literaturwissenschaft, 5 (2012), S. 124-144

Abstract

This text proposes to think about the problems of social listening (the ethical imperative of listening) through the social impact of cultural productions (photographs, films, and literature) by children of desaparecidos, the people subjected to forced disappearance during the last civil-military dictatorship in Argentina. Through old letters or photos included in the childrens productions, these absent parents take on a fleeting presence produced by a secret miracle. This (im)possible encounter of past and present times enables them to project their painful stories in the society by creating an intermediate space (Zwischenraum) that allows them, through the social listening process, to lighten the burden of personal history by placing it on a collective horizon where others can share the duty of remembering those who were murdered.