Narrating, Recalling and Elaborating:

the duty of memory

Abstract

Memory has become the subject of study in different fields of knowledge, driven by the scenarios of excess and exception that marked the 20th century. The narrative constructed about past events is a territory of constant dispute, as it exerts power over what will or will not be inscribed in individual and collective memory, what will leave a trace. This work aims to reflect on how the times of history – past, present, future – articulate and can promote changes both in the direction of what has already happened and in the direction of what is to come. In this sense, testimony emerges as a fundamental tool to allow individuals to reclaim their voice, elaborate on their traumas, as well as transmit and produce memory marks. I use the film Argentina, 1985 to think about the differences between a politics of memory and justice, in contrast to the politics of forgetting and impunity imposed by self-amnesty in the brazilian scenario.