"The Living Bond of Generations". the Narrative Construction of Post
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“The living bond of generations” The narrative construction of post-dictatorial memories in Argentina and Chile Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades doctor philosophiae (Dr. phil.) eingereicht an der Philosophischen Fakultät III der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin von Raimundo Frei Toledo, M.A. Präsident der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Prof. Dr. Jan-Hendrik Olbertz Dekanin der Philosophischen Fakultät III Prof. Dr. Julia von Blumenthal Sprache: English Gutachter: 1. Prof. Dr. Klaus Eder 2. Prof. Dr. Michael Corsten Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 17. Februar 2015. ERKLÄRUNG Hiermit versichere ich, dass ich die vorgelegte Arbeit „The living bond of generations: The narrative construction of post-dictatorial memories in Argentina and Chile“ selbständig verfasst habe. Andere als die angegebenen Hilfsmittel habe ich nicht verwendet. Die Arbeit ist in keinem früheren Promotionsverfahren angenommen oder abgelehnt worden und wird zur Veröffentlichung eingereicht. Berlin, 09.12.2014 Raimundo Frei ii Table of Contents Index of figures and tables vii Acknowledgments viii Introduction 1 On historical distance and temporal boundaries in Argentina and Chile Chapter 1 Generational building: the intertwining of memories and narratives 24 1.1 Puzzling Mannheim: Revisiting The Problem of Generations 27 1.2 After Mannheim: the cultural turn in generational studies 36 1.3 Memory supports 45 1.4 A narrative approach to generations 52 Chapter 2 Looking for stories in Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile 61 2.1 Grasping stories: instrument, fieldwork and sample 63 2.1.1 A narrative experiment: remembering for the future 64 2.1.2 Fieldwork: Interviewing in Buenos Aires and Santiago 66 2.1.3 The Sample 71 2.2 Structural Narrative Analysis 74 2.2.1 Coding 74 2.2.2 Matching and Casing 76 2.2.3 Connectivity and turning points 78 2.2.4 Narrative and linguistic apparatus 78 2.2.5 Narrative Templates and Modes of Emplotment 80 iii Chapter 3 Buenos Aires, 1965-1974: Sequences of (dis)illusion and the nostalgic/comedy plot 83 3.1 Historical Boundaries: Peron’s death and migrant stories 84 3.2 Childhood memories: The coup d’état at home and primary school 86 3.3 Intermezzo: World Cup 1978 91 3.4 Malvinas/Falkland War and the sacred young soldiers 92 3.5 The Alfonsín’s spring and the political activism 97 3.6 1987 Easter and the hyperinflation 103 3.7 The winners’ and losers’ story and the return of fear 109 3.8 Nostalgic and comic plots 112 Chapter 4 Santiago de Chile, 1966-1974: Memories of the transition and a consoling plot 118 4.1 Historical boundaries: Rural Migration and Allende’s government 118 4.2 The military regime: grey atmosphere, aeroplanes and bodies 122 4.3 The economic crisis of 1981 and public mobilizations 127 4.4 Intermezzo: television as a cacophonous memory device 131 4.5 The secondary-school movement as a failed generational memory 134 4.6 The Yes-No referendum as a triumphal memory 136 4.7 The democratic promise and gradual disillusionment 140 4.8 Insecurity as a new trope 148 4.9 The consoling plot 150 iv Chapter 5 Buenos Aires, 1986-1994: Canonical narratives and the cyclical plot 154 5.1 Historical Boundaries: the return of democracy and the hyperinflation 155 5.2 Childhood during the nineties: constructing an ‘evil’ time 157 5.3 The crisis of 2001 as a medial experience 162 5.4 Intermezzo: Class Memories of the Crisis 165 5.5 The double canonization of the dictatorship as a heroic tragedy 167 5.6 Peronism as a triumphant and polarizing memory 177 5.7 The cyclical plot 184 Chapter 6 Santiago de Chile, 1986-1994: Generational disruption and the romantic plot 188 6.1 Historical boundaries: communicative silence and the queue 190 6.2 Childhood memories: narrative flattening of the nineties 188 6.3 Intermezzo: the subtle process of breaking the silence 201 6.4 Secondary school and the ‘penguin’ revolution 207 6.5 The protests of 2011 and reflexive nostalgia 213 6.6 The romantic plot 222 v Chapter 7 Towards a cultural understanding of generational building 225 7.1 Explaining intersections at the synchronic level 227 7.1.1 The emotional bond 228 7.1.2 The search of coherence 231 7.1.3 Memories of childhood and narrative templates 233 7.1.4 Blocking intersections: class memories 235 7.2 Explaining projects of boundary control at the diachronic level 239 7.2.1 Family memory: loyalty and communicative silences 240 7.2.2 School - Media Supports: reinforcement and breaking 241 7.2.3 Meaningful economy and narrative conjectures 244 7.2.4 Canonization and weakening of state narratives 245 7.3 Modes of emplotment: narrative foundations of generational building 251 7.3.1 Nostalgic plot: Reaction against a new canonical narrative 252 7.3.2 Comical plot: Reintegration encouraged by new canonical narratives 254 7.3.3 Consoling plot: Weakening of the canonical narrative 256 7.3.4 Cyclical plot: Rituals of mourning and dividing futures 257 7.3.5 Romantic plot: Utopian longings and the emergence of new generations 259 Conclusion: whose generational memories? 262 Bibliography 269 vi Index of figures, tables, and images Figure 1 The puzzle of Karl Mannheim’s problem of generations 35 Figure 2 Generational narratives as a linking mechanism 57 Figure 3 Nostalgic plot-line 115 Figure 4 Comical plot-line 117 Figure 5 Consoling plot-line 153 Figure 6 Cyclical plot-line 186 Figure 7 Romantic plot-line 223 Figure 8 Event-Codification according to three social segments 238 Table 1 Number of participants by city and gender 71 Table 2 Number of participants by age range for each city and cohort 71 Table 3 Number of participants for each social stratum and cohort 72 Table 4 Number of codifications for each city and cohort 76 Table 5 Modes of emplotment and codes 252 Image 1 Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires 67 Image 2 City of Buenos Aires 68 Image 3 Santiago Metropolitan Region 69 Image 4 City of Santiago de Chile 70 Image 5 Alfonsín and Memen after the pact: false helpers 106 Image 6 Double Evita on the Health Ministry 113 Image 7 The plebiscite as a triumphal memory 138 Image 8 Front-pages of the magazine ‘The Clinic’ portraying Pinochet 148 Image 9 De La Rúa fled from the palace 164 Image 10 In order not to forget: 17 October, loyalty day 183 Image 11 The pain of the Children 206 Image 12 Where are they? 221 vii Acknowledgments This doctoral dissertation has been supported by numerous institutions, scholars and colleagues. DAAD provided an opportunity to learn German in Göttingen for six months and, together with the Becas-Chile scholarship, to do research in Berlin for four years. The Internationales Büro of Humboldt-Universität of Berlin helped me to conduct my interviews in Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile, and by means of its Abschlussstipendium I was able to finish this manuscript in recent months. I thank all these institutions and the individuals who keep them running. The genesis of this dissertation entails a fall-and-rise story. At the very beginning, I was enthusiastic to study narratives of individualization in Latin-American literature. However, during the first months of my research, I became lost in the sociology of literature. It is thanks to my supervisor, Professor Klaus Eder, that I finally turned to social narratives and collective memories. I sincerely thank him for his patience, incomparable theoretical advice and readings of my drafts. In addition, I am grateful to Professor Eder’s colloquium group for their critical and constructive remarks. My first attempts at understanding the dynamics of social memories were supported by Daniela Jara, Elizabeth Jelin and Cristóbal Rovira. Furthermore, during these four years, I have benefitted from participating in the colloquium Memory, Discourse and Diversity, organized by Irit Dekel, Bernhard Forchtner and Gökce Yurdakul at Humboldt University. I would like to thank the entire group for their input from stimulating presentations and the valuable comments that I received when presenting my own results. Amongst these presentations, the one by Vered Vinitzky-Veroussi excelled and I am grateful for her illuminating feedback. In a similar vein, Irit Dekel has offered me lucid theoretical perspectives on memory throughout this entire period. When conducting interviews in Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires, many friends, relatives and acquaintances offered support and help to establish contacts. I offer my heartfelt gratitude to all of them. I also want to thank Alejandro Grimson in Buenos Aires (IDEAS, Universidad Nacional San Martín) and Pedro Güell in Santiago de Chile (CISOC, Universidad Alberto Hurtado). While staying in Chile, I was able to present to Pedro Güell’s colloquium on temporality, thus benefitting from their rich viii observations. I am also deeply grateful to Pepa Mena for providing me with a place to stay during my time in Argentina, as well as the company of my Chilean colleague, Aldo Madariaga, with whom I share the experience of interviewing in ‘terra incognita’. Different chapters have been reviewed, commented on and improved thanks to several brilliant scholars, most of them good friends. I am very grateful to Kathya Araujo, Jorge Atria, Matías Dewey, Sofía Donoso, Pedro Güell, Camila Jara, Anna Krüger, María Luisa Marinho, Sebastián Muñoz, Macarena Orchard, Cristóbal Rovira, Juan Pablo Rodríguez, Daniela Trucco and Tomás Undurraga. I am especially grateful to Ramiro Segura for his inestimable comments on Argentine discursive and cultural distinctions. Furthermore, I want to thank Lars Breuer for his critical reading of my most analytical, and difficult, chapter. I am also thankful for the professional proofreading done by Gerard Hearne. Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to all my friends who, over the last four years, have helped me and illuminated my investigation with their lucid suggestions.