Droit et Cultures (Dec 2013)
(Re)jouer l’histoire de la guerre, revivre le massacre. Performance carnavalesque et processus mémoriels dans les Andes d’Ayacucho (Pérou)
Abstract
The gathering of testimonials by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the aftermath of the armed conflict opposing the Shining Path guerrilla and the Peruvian state has led to original socio-cultural dynamics around the local histories of the war. This article will focus on a carnival performance carried out in the Andean district of Ocros, staging the massacres committed by the Shining Path and the struggle of the peasant militias. Beyond the commemoration of this episode, what are the issues and the objectives that underlie the performance? What view is given and what is left unsaid by the actors in this type of unavoidably fragmentary «writing» of a history of violence? Analyzing both the choreographic and the narrative production concerning the war, we will address the strategic uses they give rise to. Finally, we will focus on the way in which different memories compete and articulate to one another, so as to determine the mechanisms of legitimation and the competitive logics at play in these projections of recent history.
