Abstract

This paper considers John Beverley’s definition of ‘testimonio’ as well as terms commonly associated with testimony such as mourning, melancholy and the unsayable, to explore Alicia Partnoy’s contribution to a public process of confronting the terror of Argentina’s Dirty War. I argue that Partnoy’s The Little School reflects many characteristics of Beverley’s non-fictional ‘testimonio’, however, she accomplishes these through the use of literary devices typically attributed to fiction. Therefore, this is a brief study of Partnoy’s intricate weaving of fact and fiction to represent a traumatic lived experience.