The affective operations of Mexican poetic activism

Join us on Friday, April 8th from 3:50-5:00 PM via Zoom for a talk by visiting graduate student Marloes Mekenkamp entitled "The affective operations of Mexican poetic activism- reflections on the methodological challenges for the study of affect in art activism practices."

Abstract:

Contemporary Mexican cultural production is strongly influenced by the extreme violence that has engulfed the country in recent years – particularly since the declaration of the so-called “war on drugs”. A literary phenomenon that emerged within this context is the production of political poetry that combines commemoration with mobilization. This form of poetic activism recounts violent episodes of Mexico’s recent past by appropriating testimonies by victims. In addition, these poems are remediated in the public sphere, during protest marches and performances.

What else characterizes these poems, and the activism against the “war on drugs” more in general, is the particular use of affect and emotions – especially pain, grief, and empathy – as a way to denounce violent acts committed by the state and/or criminal groups, to interrupt the hegemonic discourse about the violence, to mobilize a counterresponse from civil-society, and/or to demand justice and peace from the government.

In this talk I will illustrate these affective operations by a brief discussion of the work of two Mexican poets: Cristina Rivera Garza and María Rivera. In this discussion I will pay particular attention to my use of, what in cultural memory studies has been called, the afterlife approach - which traces how certain works, images, forms, discourses, etc. “travel” through time, space and different media - in order to analyze how the work of these poets generates and transmits affect and emotions. At the same time, I propose to tentatively think about both the opportunities and limitations of this methodological approach for the study of affect and emotion in relation to agency in art activist practices more in general.

Speaker Bio:

Marloes Mekenkamp is a PhD candidate at the Radboud Institute for Culture and History in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Her research focuses on the relationship between literature and activism within contexts of violence and conflict. In her doctoral thesis Marloes studies the role of emotions in poetic activism within the context of the "war against drugs" in Mexico. In addition, she has published on the literary production of the Mexican criminal group La Familia Michoacana.