Body, memory, and resistance: the Testimonial journalism about women under the Dictatorship

Abstract

This article analyzes the book A Torre: O cotidiano de mulheres encarceradas pela Ditadura by Luiza Villaméa, as an example of a journalistic narrative aimed at reconfiguring silenced memories of political repression in Brazil. Based on the idea that the past persists as a shadow or specter, we discuss the role of testimonial journalism in critically reconstructing historical memory. Our analysis seeks to understand how the work highlights the dimension of gender-based violence, as well as the centrality of the body as a locus where shared testimony, identity constructions, and collective narratives are inscribed through the book’s mediation. We conclude, with some memory operators, that the bodies of incarcerated women transcend individuality, becoming living archives of the regime’s brutality. By articulating temporalities and different ways of narrating, Villaméa’s book is part of a broader debate on the impact of the dictatorship and the importance of its historical remembrance.