Gustavo Caso Rosendi's Soldados (2009): Giving Voice to the Voiceless

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Abstract
In Argentine post-conflict poetry, the topic of the Falklands/Malvinas has often been used to perpetuate the patriotic and patriarchal attitudes that underwrote the conflict. Multiple poetic texts exist that proclaim the adage ‘No olvidemos’ in various forms and re-inscribe the chauvinism and military triumphalism of the Argentine national myth, as codified by the military junta, or which mourn in perpetual memoriam the ‘chicos de la guerra’, yet re-vindicate the ideal of just cause and ‘las Malvinas fueron, son y siempre serán Argentinas’ . Such declarations return to concepts of chivalric or self-transcendent sacrifice and the hegemonic masculinity and virile codification of war. Despite the proclamations of sacrifice forever remembered though, such texts ignore the actuality of the veteran and the uneasy dialogue of remembrance that exists between the need to forget and not to be forgotten.
This dichotomy between the post-conflict presence of the Malvinas and its lack of authenticity is, however, countered by texts that express a belief in the need to remember the war and pay homage to those who participated without celebrating bellicosity. Gustavo Caso Rosendi’s 2009 collection Soldados is one of these, in which he brings us snapshots of the soldier’s experience outside of the symbolic binaries of victim / hero. In this paper, I wish to consider the ways in which poems from this volume depict the soldier’s war and articulate their unceasing battle with memory

Period	13 Apr 2022
Event title	AHGBI 67th Annual Conference 2022
Event type	Conference
Location	London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International