‘Silence and absence: the effects of state terrorism on the Argentine society’.

MERCEDES BARROS

Derby, Reino Unido

Conferencia; Society for Latin American Studies 2005 Annual Conference; 2005

University of Derby

The aim of the paper will be to explore the initial effects of the discourse of the last military dictatorship on the Argentine society. I will begin by looking at the regime’s diffusion of fear, putting special attention to one of its main effects: silence. I will show through a detailed historical account how this silence was actually secured not only by the action of the military government but also by the clear identification of the political and social forces with the aims and values of the Proceso. And finally, I will look at how the prevailing silence and the resulting failure of the existing discourses to articulate the effects of the dirty war resulted in a temporal suspension of meaning within the reality of the PRN that immersed the families of the victims and all those affected by the illegal repression into a stage of deep desperation and frustration that eventually would open up the possibilities for struggle and change within the universe of the PRN.