ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0433-3940
Date of Award
Spring 2025
Language
Spanish
Embargo Period
5-1-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
College/School/Department
Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Program
Spanish
First Advisor
Ilka Kressner
Committee Members
Bernardita Llanos, Carmen Serrano
Keywords
Bioficción, memoria, postmemoria, dictadura de Pinochet, Los doce años, Nona Fernández, Rita Indiana
Subject Categories
Spanish Literature
Abstract
This dissertation examines how the concepts of biopolitics and postmemory are addressed in the narratives of Chilean author Nona Fernández (1971—) and Dominican author Rita Indiana (1977—) when portraying the dynamics of control and power in the totalitarian regimes of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990) and Joaquín Balaguer Twelve Years (1966-1978). Methodologically, the study explores biopolitics, which regulates the lives and bodies of citizens, and necropolitics, which dictates who can live and who must die, to understand state repression in both narrative contexts. Through the concept of postmemory, the research observes how the trauma of dictatorships is transmitted generationally and manifests in the works of these authors, who employ techniques such as biofiction and intertextuality to challenge official narratives and give voice to the silenced in the past and the present.
The conclusions highlight that Nona Fernández's and Rita Indiana's works offer incisive critiques of these regimes and reveal how literature serves as a space for resistance and memory, confronting the persistent legacy of dictatorship in collective identity, marked by a living history of oppressive control through bodily punishment.
Keywords: Biofiction, Memory, Postmemory, Pinochet dictatorship, Los doce años, Nona Fernández, Rita Indiana
License
This work is licensed under the University at Albany Standard Author Agreement.
Recommended Citation
Ippolito, Fiordaliza, "Testigos, pero No Protagonistas: Bioficciones, Postmemoria y Trauma Transgeneracional en las Narrativas de Nona Fernández y Rita Indiana" (2025). Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present). 187.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/etd/187
