"The living bond of generations". The narrative construction of post-dictatorial memories in ...

301 Pages·2017·6.7 MB·English

by  Raimundo Frei

“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

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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

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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

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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

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Chapter 7
Towards a cultural understanding of generational building 225

7.1 Explaining intersections at the synchronic leve l 227
7.1.1 The emotional bond 228
7.1.2 The search of coherence 231
7.1.3 Memories of childhood and narrativet emplates 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

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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

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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

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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.
I have presented my preliminary results to the Methodenzentrum
Sozialwissenschaften at Göttingen University. I am very grateful to Professor
Gabrielle Rosenthal and her research group on narratives for their constructive
comments. I would also like to express my thanks for all the kind and informed
comments about generational theory made by my second supervisor, Michael
Corsten. At the very end of this process, I had the gratifying opportunity to discuss
my research in the Institut für Sozialwissenschaften at Hildesheim University. I am
thankful to the participants and Professor Corsten for their thoughtful reflections.
Finally, this thesis could not have been completed without three ‘groups’ of people.
First, to all those in Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile who participated in my
‘narrative experiment’, I sincerely thank them for their stories, for recollecting their
experiences of their time and biographical as well as collective turning points.
Thanks are due for the opportunity to listen to their life stories and, quite often,
difficult memories.
Second, I owe an immense debt to Bernhard Forchtner. He has not only reviewed,
commented on and painstakingly discussed all of the following chapters but has,
furthermore, became the greatest partner to share my worries, theoretical ‘tragedies’
and sociological doubts. I had the opportunity to attend his seminar about

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‘Soziologie der Erinnerung’, and the gratifying experience of teaching with him a
seminar on ‘Introduction to Narrative Analysis’. In the event that this thesis is
comprehensible and readable, it is thanks to him. All remaining mistakes are, of
course, my responsibility.
Besides narratives, I share with Bernhard the births of our respective children.
Though we are of the same age cohort, it was already his third while I became a
happy father in 2014. My family were of course an important emotional support for
this thesis. My parents (Jorge and Isabel), brothers (Jorge and Gonzalo), sisters-in-
law (Valeria, Alejandra, Deborah, and Isadora), and my parents-in-law (Guillermo
and Hannah) were always there for me to encourage me in my work. They know that
the birth of my son, Martín, was one of the most magnificent experiences of my life.
This thesis is dedicated to Martín, and to his mother, my wife, Eleonora. Over the
last four years, we married and shared everything; she kindly and patiently dealt
with my doctoral worries and, for almost one year, every morning we saw the most
beautiful smile in the world, together.

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