Reviewed by: Queering Acts of Mourning in the Aftermath of Argentina’s Dictatorship. The Performances of Blood by Sosa Cecilia Brenda Werth Sosa, Cecilia. Queering Acts of Mourning in the Aftermath of Argentina’s Dictatorship. The Performances of Blood. Suffolk, UK: Tamesis, 2014: 190pp. Cecilia Sosa’s Queering Acts of Mourning in the Aftermath of Argentina’s Dictatorship. The Performances of Blood begins with a series of enduring questions of universal interest and importance: “In what ways are we ‘touched’ by the past? Are those who have personally experienced the effects of violence the only ones entitled to contest them? Can the rehearsal of trauma bring us pleasure in the present?” (1). What follows is an original and sophisticated investigation of those questions in the context of Argentina’s constantly evolving post-dictatorial memory politics. Sosa’s book envisions non-normative modes of belonging that shift attention away from what she has termed the “wounded family” narrative, upheld by those family members directly affected by dictatorial violence. Renowned memory theorists [End Page 194] have discussed blood kinship and the powerful role of family members (in Argentina long considered “the guardians of mourning”) in articulating memory politics. Sosa, too, identifies the potential closures prescribed by the “wounded family.” Her bold contribution, however, is to propose a new lexicon for approaching mourning and loss that does not reinforce the conservative familial tropes that traditionally have consolidated the culture of memory and mourning along bloodlines in post-dictatorial Argentina. Drawing on performance, kinship, and queer studies, she elaborates this vision with nuance, questioning the exclusive legitimacy of voice historically attributed to those with blood ties while at the same time calling for a “creative politics of memory, which does not compromise the need to establish the biological identity of the abducted children” (26). Sosa’s engagement with queer studies initiates a major shift in existing dialogue on memory, human rights, trauma, and mourning in Argentina. Throughout the book she establishes fluid dialogue with key theorists such as Judith Butler, Ann Cvetkovich, David Eng, Lee Edelman, Sara Blackman, Carolyn Dinshaw, Eve Sedgwick, and Sara Ahmed, among others. Sosa writes, “I will conceive as ‘queer bonds’ those forms of relationality that contest the biological narratives of injury accounted for by the relatives of the victims in Argentina. By bringing those queer bonds to the foreground, I want to examine the alternative forms of support, love and care that have become possible in the aftermath of violence” (4). There are always risks involved in introducing a novel approach to an already charged topic such as memory. When done well, as Sosa does in her book, a smartly conceived and insightful new approach can reshape scholarly debates and leave a lasting imprint on the field. In Chapter One, “Paradoxes of Blood: From the Madres’ Queer Mourning to the Kirchnerist Era,” Sosa begins by explaining the ways in which the practices of mourning, loss, and human rights activism since the dictatorship have been associated almost exclusively with family. Sosa discusses how biological normativity was constructed over the course of this period, its role in founding and perpetuating the “wounded family,” and how governmental and legal decisions reinforced this normativity. Engaging critically with the work of Diana Taylor, Butler, and Ahmed, Sosa demonstrates ways in which key public figures, including the Madres, former President Néstor Kirchner, and others, have contested these normative bloodlines and made possible the foundation of more expansive, non-normative affiliations. Chapter Two, “Black Humor and the Children of the Disappeared,” focuses on the activist group H.I.J.O.S. as a case study for exploring the “non-normative pleasures from the experience of loss” (28). Sosa examines the complex codes, limits, rights, and notions of pedigree that defined group membership from its inception to the late nineties. She then goes on to show how the definition of ‘belonging’ shifted as the era of impunity that had characterized the nineties came to a close and the Kirchner government integrated many of the group’s principles into its public policy. Sosa argues that due to this shift, H.I.J.O.S. ultimately expanded the experience of [End Page 195] mourning to include those who...
Read full abstract
Jul 1, 2022
Andy Knott 
Open Access