Montecristo. Un amor y una venganza (2006). The Collective Trauma of the Argentinian Dictatorship as a Melodrama

Abstract

The article examines the melodramatic representation of the kidnapping of children during the Argentinian military and civilian dictatorships (1976-1983) in the telenovela Montecristo, broadcasted in 2006 in Argentina. The goal is to study the series as representative of one moment in the political memory of the dictatorship, and analyzes its oscillation between two previously existing discourses: the one belonging to the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, and the melodramatic narrative. Such melodramatic discourse also expresses its ambiguity at the level of mass media circulation and consumption that inevitably entail the de-politization of the social memory.