ABSTRACT
In this paper I explore two approaches to what lies ‘unearthed’ in Chile’s recent violent histories. In the first instance, I explore the effort towards the obfuscation or intertitialization of knowledge by the Chilean state, regarding the Pinochet dictatorship years. The argument in the first half of the paper underlines the need to understand recent Chilean history in relation to explicit efforts at ‘disappearing’ history – at the purposeful obfuscation of deathly experiences and the limbo these generate. In the second half, I explore the idea that in the ‘negative’ space afforded by the circumstantial and historical possibilities of locales of political interest, where traumatic history is only partially understood, or not recognized, paranormal investigators expand, rather than contract, possibilities within this negative. I use negative theology, a medieval counter-orthodox current of writing about the unspeakable, to explore how, in contrast to the Chilean state from 1973 to 1990, which receded into the darkness of negation, paranormal investigators take impetus from this darkness and transform it into a version of history proper, ontologizing the negative as they proceed. Their endeavours thus become quasi-cosmogonic, in theological terms.
Acknowledgments
The author wish to thank all the interlocutors of this project, especially Patrimonio Vivo and its tour guides, particularly César Parra. The research project was approved by the ethics committee at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, number 150714023.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).