Jennifer Alpert’s article, "Remembering the Future, Unraveling the Mystery," published in "The Velvet Light Trap"

Jennifer Alpert's new article, "Remembering the Future, Unraveling the Mystery: Science Fiction as Collective Memory in Postdictatorship Argentina," was published in The Velvet Light Trap in September 2023.

The new article was published by the University of Texas Press.

ABSTRACT:

Science fiction film production has grown in Argentina since the late twentieth century. While in North America the genre has been concerned with the future, postdictatorship Argentinean science fiction investigates a past riddled with mysteries and memories, presenting a cautionary tale of what will happen if the country's history falls into oblivion. Through analysis of postdictatorship films, I show how Argentinean science fiction's deep historical ties and its use of detecting qualities associated with crime thrillers help to unravel the traumatic mysteries of the past. This article challenges characterizations of genres as ahistorical, showing that different production contexts yield shifts and disruptions in addition to continuities.