Anger and/or Hope. Feminist Photography during the Argentine democratic transition

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the work of three Argentine feminist photographers produced during the local transition to democracy, given a critical reconstruction of certain premises of the affective turn. I understand that the concept of “affective atmosphere” is beneficial in highlighting how analyzing cultural forms in affective terms is more productive if it avoids discussing isolated emotions and instead focuses on characterizing these atmospheres based on the tensions generated by allegedly contradictory emotions. I argue that the specific temporality of transition frames this central tension expressed in terms of the unique link between hope and anger, two emotions frequently scrutinized in isolation, that play a central role in the affective dimension of the public. This analysis is part of a more general project aimed at pointing out that the specificity of feminisms in the region must be analyzed considering the lasting marks that state terrorism has left in their strategies of intervention. In the case scrutinized in these pages, the overlap between anger and hope accounts for a particular approach to the traces of terror.