Contested Amnesia and Dissonant Narratives in the Global South: Post-conflict in Literature, Art, and Emergent Archives
The Cold War period and its subsequent post-conflicts are characterized by a remarkable amnesia, a politics of invisibilization, and the neglect of the archives that reflect the epistemic order of decolonization and the geopolitical configuration of the Global South. Yet counter-semantics and dissonant narratives that challenge historical oblivion have been articulated by artists, writers and institutional initiatives that increasingly seek to contest this amnesia with alternate fictitious material or visual archives. Conflict and post-conflict situations such as Colombia (1964-) and Lebanon (1975-1989/91) reconfigured an increasingly diverse landscape of memory cultures that claim truth and accountability. While some post-conflict societies opt for an amnesty that fosters the invisibilization of the protracted conflict (Lebanon), others initiate cultural and political processes of transitional justice (Colombia).
