Reflections on Memory and Democracy

“The elegantly crafted contributions cover means of historical memory as diverse as investigative journalism, Mayan oral histories, and Argentine fiction.”—Richard Feinberg, Foreign Affairs

“This collection of essays by journalists, writers and poets; literary critics, political scientists and historians; philosophers, economists and linguists transcends disciplinary boundaries in a felicitous way. It also offers a challenge to comparative studies, in that apart from its binding focus on Chile it includes essays on Guatemala, Peru, Brazil, Haiti, Mexico and Colombia. What emerges is a multidirectional view of memory politics across the continent that allows the reader to draw inferences between the different national cases discussed and to recognize fundamental differences between, say, Chile and Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico.”—Andreas Huyssen, ReVista

“This excellent volume makes a clear contribution to the field of Latin American Studies by bringing together analysis of the relation between memory and democracy, on the one hand, with exploration of the unsettledness and complexity of memory, on the other.”—Jeffrey Rubin, Associate Professor of History, Boston University

“Reflections on Memory and Democracy is an extraordinary volume, at once powerful, analytical, and beautiful… The interdisciplinary nature of this volume, coupled with the extraordinary insider knowledge of the contributors, has painted a compelling picture of the difficulties of mobilizing memory in a way that strengthens democratic institutions, practices, and cultures. More centrally, the volume demonstrates the importance of human dignity—the dignity of being remembered—for a high-quality democracy.”—Jocelyn Viterna, Associate Professor of Sociology, Harvard University