Collective Fear: an Approach to Argentine Terror through “Bajo el aguanegra”, by Mariana Enriquez

Abstract

Throughout the history of literature, the fantastic and horror genres have been associated with the appearance of the supernatural and the unknown. In Argentina, terror is introduced in a different way; foreign myths and extraterrestrial apparitions are no longer necessary because our own historical-political past is constituted by an immense amount of elements worthy of causing horror. Through the analysis of the short story “Bajo el agua negra” (2016), by Mariana Enríquez, this paper proposes to account for a particularly Argentine type of terror, which is built from the collective fear of society to the crimes committed in and by the last Argentine civil-military dictatorship, which took place between the years 1976 and 1983, with a focus on the disappearances of people. We will work not only with theoretical-critical texts that address this genre and its performance in our literature, but also with Enríquez’s interviews and testimonies.