Discursive Processes of Intergenerational Transmission of Recent History: (Re)making Our Past

255 Pages·2016·1.321 MB·English

by  Mariana Achugar (auth.)

Discursive Processes of Intergenerational Transmission
of Recent History
AlsobyMarianaAchugar
WHATWEREMEMBER:TheConstructionofMemoryinMilitaryDiscourse
(2008)
‘Mariana Achugar has written a powerful and solid book in which she
gives voice to new generations of Uruguayan youth from Montevideo
andruralTacuarembó,whoenterthepublicdebateaboutthecontested
traumatic past of recent dictatorship. As Mariana emphasizes in her
work, “the goal of intergenerational transmission of the recent past is
not only to remember, but to understand”, and this is precisely what
youthmanifestedtobeinterestedin,because understandingtheirpast
enables them to construct their national and civic identities. Mariana
expands the theoretical and methodological approaches in discourse
analysisandfocusesonthecirculationandreceptionoftexts.Sheexam-
ines intertextuality and resemiotization in recontextualized practices,
for analyzing what youth know about the dictatorship and how they
learn about it. In doing so, Mariana reveals the complexity of this cir-
culation of meanings about the past through popular culture, family
conversationsandhistoryclassroominteractionsinschoolcontexts.We
learn that the youth, as active members of society, construct the past
of the dictatorship through both; schematic narratives that are avail-
able in the public sphere, and from their own elaborations grounded
on the materials available in the community. This is a highly relevant
and much needed book for scholars interested in memory and critical
discoursestudies.’
–TeresaOteíza,PontificiaUniversidadCatólicadeChile,Chile
‘Memoryscholarsagreethattheinter-generationaltransmissionofcol-
lectivememoriesiskeytoshapingthefuture,andothershavenotedthat
Uruguay is in the vanguard of using the school to transmit historical
memoriesoftherecentpasttochildrenwhodidnotliveitthemselves,
but no one has studied this process so closely or so well as Mariana
Achugar ... AlandmarkinMemoryStudies.’
–PeterWinn,TuftsUniversity,USA
Discursive Processes of
Intergenerational
Transmission of Recent
History
(Re)making Our Past
Mariana Achugar
CarnegieMellonUniversity,USA
palgrave
macmillan
DISCURSIVEPROCESSESOFINTERGENERATIONALTRANSMISSIONOFRECENT
HISTORY
©MarianaAchugar2016
Softcover reprint of thehardcover1stedition2016978-1-137-48732-2
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Firstpublished2016by
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inaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
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ISBN978-1-349-69558-4
E-PDFISBN:978–1–137–48733–9
DOI:10.1057/9781137487339
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For Miranda and Gabo
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Contents
ListofFigures viii
ListofTables ix
Acknowledgements x
1 IntergenerationalTransmission,Discourse,andtheRecent
Past 1
2 NarrativesasTransmissionTools:Learningaboutthe
DictatorshipinUruguay 15
3 Families’ConversationsabouttheDictatorship:
AppropriatingAnecdotesandTakinganAffectiveStance 47
4 ArgumentswithPeers:NegotiatingthePastinthePresent 103
5 ConversationsintheHistoryClassroom:Pedagogical
PracticesintheTransmissionoftheRecentPast 126
6 TransmissionProcessesinPopularCulture:
RecontextualizationandResemiotizationinMusic 162
7 AppropriatingtheRecentPast:Meaning-MakingProcesses
throughTime 188
Notes 198
Bibliography 222
AuthorIndex 236
SubjectIndex 237
vii
List of Figures
2.1 UruguayanParliamentBuildingonJune27,1973 26
2.2 Explanationproceduresandparticularepistemicactions 34
2.3 Appealoperations,percentagedistribution 34
3.1 July9,1973DieciochodeJulioAvenue 52
4.1 ProjectparticipantsattheMuseumofMemory 105
5.1 TankonDieciochodeJulioAvenueonJuly9,1973 138
viii
List of Tables
2.1 Youths’profiles 22
2.2 Narratives:whatwasthedictatorship? 32
3.1 Identificationofdictatorship-eraphotographs 101
4.1 Argumentsusedtoexplainthedictatorship 109
4.2 Positioningsenactedthroughouttheinteraction 122
5.1 CurricularprogramreformsandtheUruguayan
dictatorship 130
5.2 Representationofsocialactorsandresponsibility 139
5.3 Evaluationofsocialactorsandeventsofthedictatorship
intextbooks 146
ix