Women as Icons in Post-Trauma Societies: “Disappearing” Women in Argentine National Cinema

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn Argentina, the use of women as symbols of the nation provided a necessary anchor for debates over national identity in the aftermath of state terrorism and neoliberal reforms. Discourses of nation relied on the symbolic status of women as bearers of the nation and “disappeared” them as subjects from the public sphere, reproducing preexisting gender hierarchies. Adopting an interdisciplinary Discourse Historical Approach perspective, this manuscript examines one site of production of national identity, national cinema, through the comparative analysis of two films: The Official Story and The Headless Woman. These films rely on their female protagonists’ iconic status, the Good Mother and the Femme Fatale, respectively, to critically engage with authoritarianism, race and class in discourses of nation. Yet doing so prevents them from simultaneously addressing women’s grievances. Unmasking these exclusionary discourses is critical to understanding why Argentine women continue to be denied some of their fundamental rights.