The ghostly presence of the disappeared in Argentina

Abstract

This article analyzes the ghostly presence of the figure of the disappeared in Argentina in the period spanning from the military dictatorship—when the crime of forced disappearance was perpetrated systematically and on a massive scale—to the present. By examining a variety of written and oral sources (memoirs, print media, interviews, radio shows, photographs, documentaries, and literary works of fiction and non-fiction), the article historicizes that presence and explains it through the crime’s liminal nature, and the different meanings that the spectral figure acquires depending on the actors who perceive it and the changing political contexts. The article reveals how the ghostly presence of the disappeared challenges the tools used internationally in the field of transnational justice to deal with experiences of extreme violence and the specific policies for processing the crime of forced disappearance and representing the disappeared in Argentina.