What do Perpetrators do when they speak? Methodological Contributions based on a Research about Repressors' Public Statements (Argentina, 1976-2018) ¿Qué hacen los perpetradores cuando hablan? Aportes metodológicos a partir de una investigación sobre declaraciones públicas de represores (Argentina, 1976-2018)

FELD, CLAUDIA; SALVI, VALENTINA

Quaderns de Filologia: Estudis Literaris

Universitat de Valencia

Lugar: Valencia; Año: 2021 vol. 26 p. 181 - 204

1135-4178

The analysis of perpetrators´ statements implies specific epistemological and theoretical challenges. This article aims to provide some conceptual and methodological keys based on a comprehensive review of an extensive research carried out collectively on the statements of Argentine perpetrators who spoke publicly between 1976 and 2018. We focus on three substantive aspects: First, how the figure of perpetrator is socially constructed and how it becomes an object of study in social sciences; second, representational, performative and "truthful" dimensions of perpetrators words; and third, the temporal frames of these discourses in order to pay attention to the ways in which they are socially produced, demanded and listened to in various contexts. The theoretical-methodological approach developed here seeks to avoid descriptive, essentialist and naturalizing perspectives, and try to address different aspects of this phenomenon as sociologically relational, historically multitemporal and ethically dilemmatic.