Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons^™

Las “Brujas” En Las Carceles Clandestinas De Argentina: La Prisionera Politica Embarazada Y Otra Madres En La Imaginaria Cultural Del Terrorismo Estatal, Brianne Cotter

Honors Papers

My research attempts to build an archive of the violence that mothers and daughters faced under the Argentine "Dirty War" dictatorship of 1976-1983 with specific attention to pregnant women who visibly straddle the identity of mother and daughter. By looking to state-sanctioned resources and fictional narratives, including novels and film, I hope to better understand a lived experience of pregnant prisoners that has been historically erased, and understand how this intergenerational trauma instilled a legacy of terror through the exploitation of feminized bodies. My thesis proposes that subversive, pregnant women posed the historically rich threat of being “brujas” (witches) against …