Intergenerational Dialogism in the Construction of Memories about the Chilean Military Dictatorship

Abstract

The transmission of memories about political violence is a pressing need in societies which have experienced authoritarian rule. The article focuses on this issue in the context of the Chilean military dictatorship (1973-1990) and the memory currently being constructed about it, forty years after the coup. From a dialogic perspective, the text analyzes the type of relationship established between generations when they think back about the military dictatorship. Six discussion groups were set up, with a total of 48 participants selected according to their a) age group, b) political stance, c) socioeconomic level, and d) territory. The discursive analysis reveals the establishment of three generations -protagonist of the past, protagonist of the present, and a gray area- whose members, when recalling the dictatorship, use debate as their dialogic form without truly questioning the contents employed to construct versions of this past in their conversations.