Manchanayta Rikuj Ñawiruntukuna or The Terror that the Eyes Saw: Visual Tropes in Peru's Cultural Production about the Armed Struggle

Abstract

In the vast Peruvian creative and artistic production associated with and produced around the armed struggle between the Peruvian government and the terrorist organization known as the Shining Path during the 1980s and 1990s, four visual elements appear repeatedly: dead dogs, ski masks, graffiti, and mass graves. When the characters of the novels, short stories, films, comics, and photographs analyzed in this dissertation interact with one or more of these four tropes, their behaviors change and become performances that seek to create memories of the conflict for those who did not experience the violence or for those who have forgotten it. Through their performances, these characters comment upon and critique the conflict and its structural causes, and, in some cases, take action to influence changes in Peruvian society. Their behavior while interacting with these tropes reenacts important aspects of the struggle such as the visceral hatred between the armed combatants of the struggle; the criminal behavior associated with the conflict's ideological foundations; the psychological aftermath left by the two decades of fighting; and the relationship of social and ethnic status on the way in which Peruvians experienced the violence. Beyond bringing back to life aspects of the struggle, these characters' performances also reflect upon how the country's population has digested and problematized the conflict and its consequences. As a whole, the fourteen cultural works analyzed in this dissertation clearly state that while some efforts have been made to repair the wrongs committed during the struggle, the indifference and racism that fueled the violence is still present in Peru.