ACTS OF REPAIR:
Justice, Truth, and the politics of memory in argentina
(Rutgers University Press)
2023 Latin American Jewish Studies Association Best Book Honorable Mention
Acts of Repair explores how ordinary people grapple with political violence in Argentina, a nation home to survivors of multiple genocides and periods of violence, including the Holocaust, the political repression of the 1976-1983 dictatorship, and the 1994 AMIA bombing. Despite efforts for accountability, the terrain of justice has been uneven and, in many cases, impunity remains. How can citizens respond to such ongoing trauma? Within frameworks of transitional justice, what does this tell us about the possibility of recovery and repair? Turning to the lived experience of survivors and family members of victims of genocide and violence, Natasha Zaretsky argues for the ongoing significance of cultural memory as a response to trauma and injustice, as revealed through testimonies and public protests. Even if such repair may be inevitably liminal and incomplete, their acts seeking such repair also yield spaces for transformation and agency critical to personal and political recovery.
Cover Design: Inessa Shkolnikov.
*Please use CODE RUSA30 for a 30% discount.
VIDEO links
ELISE KEPPLER (Human Rights Watch) introduces Natasha Zaretsky [Book Launch]
Final Q&A and Closing Remarks from Nela Navarro [Book Launch]
Natasha Zaretsky discusses key themes from Acts of Repair, including FRAMING QUESTIONS, MEMORY AND JUSTICE, INTERSECTING TRAGEDIES, and LIMINALITY.
Reviews
"Acts of Repair compellingly emphasizes the value of narrative and testimony, using an ethnographic approach that is fine-grained and personal, dialogic and lyrical. This intimate book creates a nuanced frame for understanding immigrants, anti-Semitism, political culture, and memory practices, in Argentina and beyond."
--Ellen Moodie, coeditor of Central America in the New Millennium: Living Transition and Reimagining Democracy
"A masterful storylistener and storyteller, Natasha Zaretsky has written a heart-opening book that navigates the liminal spaces between silence and speech, erasure and memory, healing and trauma. The voices of her interlocutors sing and cry and are unforgettable. A stunning contribution to Latin American Jewish studies, as well as a beautiful enactment of the new soul-deep ethnography of the twenty-first century, this is a book that offers hope for humanity in fraught times."
--Ruth Behar, author of Letters from Cuba and An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba, and Victor Haim Perera Collegiate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan
"Acts of Repair presents a gripping account of a diversity of memorial sites and practices that emerged in Argentina in response to multilayered traumatic experiences of extreme political violence. Drawing on her ethnographic observations, in-depth personal interviews, and public testimonies, Zaretesky weaves personal voices into her insightful and sensitive study of the power of memory work to lead from political protest and demands for justice to human-rights trials and open venues for individual and collective processes of recovery. Acts of Repair will be of major interest to anyone interested in the comparative study of trauma, memory, human rights, and the intergenerational impact of genocide and terrorism."
--Yael Zerubavel, author of Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition
"Alumni Books: New titles from Dartmouth writers (November/December 2020)" round-up
https://dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/articles/alumni-books-november-december-2020
--Dartmouth Alumni Magazine
"Drawing on anthropological work started at Princeton, Natasha Zaretsky *08 explores the everyday lives of people coping with political violence in Argentina. Acts of Repair: Justice, Truth, and the Politics of Memory in Argentina (Rutgers University Press) investigates how cultures exist with societal trauma and injustice, and how these wrongs might be repaired."
--Princeton Alumni Weekly
"New Books Network: New Books in Genocide Studies" interview with Natasha Zaretsky
--New Books Network: New Books in Genocide Studies