The embodiment of trauma in science fiction film: a case study of Argentina

A small number of articles and book chapters have analysed post-dictatorship Argentine science fiction film from a historico-political perspective, tracing embedded references to the 1976-1983 dictatorship and showing the ways in which films such as Hombre mirando al sudeste (Subiela, 1986), Moebius (Mosquera, 1996), La sonámbula (Spiner, 1998) or La Antena (Sapir, 2007) address the themes of political repression and violence through metaphor and connotation, under cover of a fantastic narrative. My approach complements these readings, extending the corpus and outlining the first book-length study of Argentine science fiction film. Contesting positions held by certain critics that science fiction is inadequate in terms of dealing with traumatic historical issues, and aiming to move beyond seeing the genre only as a ‘camouflage device’ which has enabled authors to hide their message within a fantasy framework under the threat of persecution, this thesis argues that science fiction film fills a gap where representations of trauma memory are concerned. On the one hand, its narrative strategies and tropes are highly suited to such representations. On the other, its status as popular culture places it on the outer margins of a political and cultural framework that has consistently denied the atrocities perpetrated in a totalitarian context and sought to impose a unilateral, hegemonic version of history. In the course of the study I draw on the fields of science fiction, psychology, and Latin American studies in a cross-disciplinary approach.