Carole Concha Bell

My research explores memory exile and narrative production in post authoritarian Chile. I examine the intergenerational impact of forced political exile through the lens of hijos- the children of exiles- analysing their literary output as critical responses to dominant regime narratives. These texts become sites of memory and resistance offering counter narratives that confront the erasures and silences embedded in Chile's transitional memory politics. 

Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a methodological framework my work interrogates representations of exile in the Chilean media with a specific focus on the construction and deployment of the 'Golden Exile' trope. This idealised framing serves to obscure the violence of forced displacement and continues to reshape the return experience of exiles and their descendants. My research is also grounded in Hirschian post-memory theory that provides a framework for understanding how hijos inherit, process and contest silenced or distorted narratives.

Through the study of post-exile literature, I highlight the power of cultural production as a form of resistance and as a vehicle for reiminagining collective memory in transitional societies.