Learning through Collective Memory Work Troubling Testimonio in Post-war Peru
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Goya Wilson Vásquez is a researcher affiliated to the University of Bristol. She works on memory struggles and creative/radical methodologies from Latin America by examining the dilemmas of writing violence, the intersections between research and activism, and the uses of creativity/imagination in memory work.“This is an utterly astonishing read. Moving in its content. Flowing in its style. And breathtaking in its ambition. You will forever think very differently about the politically difficult questions of memory, testimonials and truth.” Susan L. Robertson, University of Cambridge
“Framed by a deep engagement with spatial awareness, Goya Wilson Vásquez walks and talks with the participants in her study, visiting places of their choosing, including prisons and graves. Throughout, she brings her compassion and imagination to this activist research, presenting a moving counter-history.” Molly Andrews, Co-director Association for Narrative Research and Practice
This book traces the process of producing testimonio with the children of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), an insurgent group during Peru’s internal war (1980–2000). It examines how the group navigates post-war struggles over memory while dealing with the ‘children of terrorists’ stigma.
Drawing on a cycles of inquiry approach, the book theorizes three movements for memory work: a realist presentation of testimonial narratives, a ‘politics of memory’ engaging with the conditions of production and a ‘poetics of memory’ that troubles memory, voice and representation for qualitative inquiry in post-war contexts.
Challenging the notion of war-torn countries as pure devastation, the author invites readers to see them as sites of knowledge and creativity, with much to offer for education, peace studies and social justice research.
1. Introduction
2. The Story of the Inquiry
Part 1: The First Movement – Testimonial Narratives
3. Adelín: Political Prisoners in the Family
4. Miguel: Experiences of Exile
5. Iris: Growing Up Visiting Prison
6. Rafael: Living under Silence
7. Abel: Knowing More than You Should
8. Willy: Remembering Torture
Part 2: The Second Movement – Politics of Memory
9. Spaces/Places: Working Out Testimonial Spaces
10. Silences, Secrets and Clandestine Lives
Part 3: The Third Movement – Poetics of Memory
11. Troubles with Fiction, Writing and Memory
12. Writing (about) Violence
13. Epilogue: Testimonio as Pedagogy
- Offers a unique study of Peru’s war and post-war eras to analyse a collective experience;
- Shows how knowledge can be created through experiences and how it can be used as a method to gain insights from the aftermath of violent events;
- Unveils a fresh method for education and research across a wide variety of disciplines.