FOR-GET

Identity, Media, and Democracy in Chile

By (author) Claudia Bucciferro Gonzaga University

Publication date:

03 May 2012

Length of book:

212 pages

Publisher

University Press of America

Dimensions:

229x151mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780761858959

The election of Michelle Bachelet, the first female president of Chile, brought to the public sphere topics such as gender, inequality, and the legacy of seventeen years of military rule. Former dictator Augusto Pinochet instructed Chileans to “for-get” and move on, but this is complicated because individual and collective identities are anchored in memory and articulated through discourse. What happens to a nation and its people when the obliged referent of their recent history is one that hardly anyone wants to address? This book reveals the incongruity between what current media say about Chilean identity and what most people experience, showing the tensions that prevail within a society that is also quickly changing due to globalization. The author engages with the old dichotomy between agency and structure, proposing a new model for understanding identity from an intercultural perspective.

Prologue: The Project’s Origin
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Notes on Methodology
Chapter 1: Theorizing About Identity and Discourse
Chapter 2: Identity, Memory, and the Shared Past
Chapter 3: Tradition, Roles, and Women’s Identity
Chapter 4: Class, Identity, and the 2010 Earthquake
Chapter 5: National Identity in a Global World
Epilogue: The Rise to Power of the Political Right
Bibliography
References to Chilean Media Articles
Index

…A fabulous piece of work and a significant contribution to our understanding of how a society and a culture adjust, or do not, to the forces of history. The deep autobiographical element works brilliantly, with the author interweaving her own story with a powerful analytical inquiry into the nature of Chile in the post-Pinochet era, based also on extensive fieldwork and an analysis of several media outlets. For me, though, perhaps the most remarkable aspect is that despite the fact that she is not writing in her native Spanish, the book is beautifully written, enthralling, and at times deeply moving.