ACCESSING EMOTIONS THROUGH HUMOUR IN THE CONTEMPORARY ARGENTINIAN TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE TRAJECTORY

Abstract

This article is based upon qualitative fieldwork on the current human rights trials regarding crimes committed during the last dictatorship (1976-1983) in Argentina in and around Federal Courts in Argentina with focus on emotions. It analyses emotional experiences from a phenomenological perspective. Researching collective violence in a context of law involves many behavioural constraints due to judicial rules; additionally memories of the violent past also enclose many uncomfortable emotions. Analysis of local humour practices related to the human rights trials in Argentina provide a heuristic tool to study these emotional experiences that often remain inaccessible. Humour in a context of law is thought-provoking and provides alternative insights in local transitional justice trajectories after collective violence.