Desire is Born of Collapse: The Paradoxical Consequences of Forced Migrations (Argentina, 1958-2015)

ANALÍA GERBAUDO

Academics in a Century of Displacement. The Global History and Politics of Protecting Endangered Scholars

Springer

Lugar: Berlín; Año: 2024; p. 131 - 156

This article attempts to demonstrate how forced migrations, ideologically or economically driven and caused by political state violence in Argentina, have had paradoxical effects both in terms of the institutionalization and the professional development of agents working in the field of literary studies: In exile, agents accumulated scholarly, symbolic, and social capital that would be drawn on by the state institutions that incorporated them upon their return to Argentina. Even when agents did not return, they contributed from abroad to the institutionalization and/or internationalization of literary studies in Argentina. The first section sets out the main methodological research decisions on which this article is founded as an explanation of how I put together my database. Building on this database, the second section describes the forced migrations of Argentinian agents working in the field of literary studies. Finally, using this data, certain patterns are drawn as regards the exiles and the returns of different groups of agents.