Fiction and Insight in Alicia Partnoy’s Testimonial Autofiction, La Escuelita

Abstract

In La Escuelita. Relatos testimoniales (2006 [1986]), are woven together, as a form of exemplary testimonial autoficion, the first-hand testimony given by Alicia Partnoy, the victim, and the drawings made by her mother, Raquel Partnoy. The images contribute to the narrative construction of a visual and textual testimonio that revolves around vision, or lack thereof. The introspective gaze, therein represented visually and verbally, opens the victims to a space of fictionalization that transcends what is seen through the eyes. It is from within this autofictonal space of resistance, I claim, that the blindfolded captives of La Escuelita, including la reaparecida, Alicia Partnoy, navigate their world, and establish a sense of solidarity amongst themselves. Furthermore, Partnoy’s autofictional testimonio breaks with the understanding of literature as an autonomous manifestation detached from the real. La Escuelita is recognized as legal proof in the truth trials where Alicia Partnoy testified, thereby resolving, I argue, the tension between the fictional and the nonfictional that is inherent to literary testimony according to Kaminsky (1993), Taylor (1997), and Detwiler (2000), among others.