Dreaming the trauma, surviving the catastrophes: dreams of ex-prisoners from the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp and dreams of relatives of political disappeared from the Araguaia guerrilla in comparative perspective

• Grant number: 19/10946-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2020
• End date: September 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Cesar Endo
• Grantee: Paulo Cesar Endo
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos Avançados (IEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Fabiana Maria Rousseaux ; Garth Stevens ; Umesh Lalloo Bawa ; Wojciech Owczarski

Abstract

This research aims to articulate some aspects of work that I have been doing for more than a decade around social and political memory. It includes memorials, collections and archives; the struggles for memory and the clinical, theoretical and conceptual developments of psychoanalysis around the concepts of memory, trauma, mourning and violence.These developments and studies, both inside and outside Brazil, find their first great point of articulation with the research begun in 2016 in Poland on the dreams of ex-prisoners of Auschwitz thanks to access to the collection made available by the museum and Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial.Such access allowed researchers from four different countries to gather for a first study of this precious material. At the same time, it was clear from the outset that it would be necessary to lengthen the research, initially planned for 3 years(2016-2018) with the support of the Polish government.Thus, this study represents an extension of the examination of this material, but seeking to move towards comparative analysis. In the case of Brazil the goal is to bring two sets of dreams together. The dreams of ex-prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau and a set of short narratives of dreams of relatives of disappeared in the Araguaia guerrilla during the civil-military dictatorship in Brazil. Both collections have not been studied suficiently and are not very accessible. Thus the studies and results coming from this examination are intended to contribute to broaden the field of study on cultural memory and testimony and spread informations about the existence of these collections of testimonies and narratives of dreams.The aim is to create a methodology of analysis and interpretation of dreams that allows comparative analysis with realities of other contexts and countries. (AU)