In the spring of 2013, televisions across Venezuela announced the death of then-president Hugo ChAvez, leader of the Bolivarian Revolution and key political actor in Latin America's "turn to the left." ChAvez's death, however, was not the end of ChAvez's life. In The Necromantic State, Irina R. Troconis examines how ChAvez, as a "specter," has lingered in Venezuela's public, private, and digital spaces. Focusing on contemporary Venezuela and drawing from a diverse corpus that includes tattoos, toys, memes, graffiti, and a hologram haunting the streets of downtown Caracas, Troconis contends that, in moments of failed transitions, political tensions, and crises of legitimacy, the state brings the dead back to life to negotiate the terms of its survival. By showing how this necromantic performance enables the state's material and visual manifestations in public and private spaces, Troconis untangles a sociopolitical moment in which the ghostly acts as the affective, social, and political force that grounds state authority and ensures the preservation of the status quo, as it circumscribes acts of political imagination and limits popular resistance.
Irina R. Troconis is Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies at Cornell University.
Acknowledgments ix Introduction. The Necromantic State 1 1. Chronicle of a Death Postponed 43 2. Under the Specter's Gaze 78 3. (Re)Collecting ChAvez 121 4. Toying with the Comandante 175 Interlude. Afterdeath 217 5. Raw and Rotten 230 Coda. An Impulse toward Potentiality 260 Notes 267 References 297 Index
"In this original and creative book Irina R. Troconis problematizes the idea of one of the main topics among Venezuelan researchers: the 'magical state.' By shifting the axis from the 'magical state' to the 'necromantic state,' she brings into focus the image of Hugo Chavez after his death and its use by the Bolivarian state. In so doing, she makes a strong theoretical intervention: the national ghost becomes a specter when the state puts it into circulation. This outstanding book will make a great impact in the field of Venezuelan and Latin American cultural studies." - Graciela Montaldo, Professor of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Columbia University "The Necromantic State is a compelling, fascinating, and sometimes jaw-dropping exploration of the afterlife of the charismatic leadership of Hugo ChAvez. Irina R. Troconis is the rare scholar who can take unconventional objects-from phone cards to films, performance art to dolls-and analyze them to illuminate the politics that surround the deadly remains of the state. Troconis addresses the suffering of millions of citizens who remain in or have fled the country, without celebrating or condemning the unprecedented displacement. Amid a national tragedy, she still finds ways to decipher what the ghostly members of the state say." - Javier Guerrero, Professor of Latin American Studies, Princeton University
