Memoria e trauma in "El circulante", di Uriel Quesada (Costa Rica)

Abstract

Abstract

This essay studies the process of memory construction (the construction of a “traumatic memory”) that allows the protagonist of the short story “El circulante”, by Uriel Quesada, to bring to consciousness the abuse he suffered as a child, by a man who, years later, died of AIDS-related illnesses. The essay uses the theoretical contributions of the German scholar Aleida Assmann, who explains trauma as a “psychic wound” that alters the constitution of the subject who experiences it. Although Assmann focuses on other cases of “traumatic memory”, her contributions are important for the study of an “individual” and fictional memory, such as the one found in Quesada’s text. It is argued that fiction participates in the recognition of those subjectivities that have been excluded or made invisible in “the distribution of the sensible”, as has happened, in many cases, with victims of sexual abuse, especially with male victims, on whom the patriarchal order imposes an almost absolute silence.

Keywords: Costa Rican Literature, HIV, AIDS, Memory, Trauma, Sexual Violence.