Event Title
Argentina's Dirty War and How Media and Popular Culture Shape Conflicting Memories
Location
Diamond 223
Start Date
30-4-2015 1:10 PM
End Date
30-4-2015 2:25 PM
Project Type
Presentation
Description
My research project is on Argentina and the Dirty War and the various ways it has been interpreted by the media and popular culture. I am examining the connections between the media and their portrayal of the war with the memories formed by the public. My intention for the project is to come away with a better sense of how there are various reactions and lasting memories towards war and how the media helps to see and produce these differences. My research question is: What is the relationship between the media, (which includes newspapers, posters, and films), and how the Dirty War was portrayed and its impact on the formation of the collective memory within Argentina? Were there different interpretations of the Argentine past, which have now led to the current division within Argentina? My argument is that there is a strong divide amongst the memory of the past within Argentina, in which the media plays a role in emphasizing these differences. The media, involving newspaper articles, posters, and films have been lacking significant coverage, allowing some to forget the past of the Dirty War. For the media that has been available, they have portrayed the war as a horrifying event and the darkest period of Argentinean history. These forms of media create fear and portray the importance of keeping these tragic events alive, therefore, reinforcing the inability for some to reconcile with their past. This difference in remembering the war has led to the inability to form a collective memory and has lead to disunity and a democracy well embedded with the history of state terror.
Faculty Sponsor
Winifred Tate
Sponsoring Department
Colby College. Anthropology Dept.
CLAS Field of Study
Social Sciences
Event Website
http://www.colby.edu/clas
ID
1104
Argentina's Dirty War and How Media and Popular Culture Shape Conflicting Memories
Diamond 223
My research project is on Argentina and the Dirty War and the various ways it has been interpreted by the media and popular culture. I am examining the connections between the media and their portrayal of the war with the memories formed by the public. My intention for the project is to come away with a better sense of how there are various reactions and lasting memories towards war and how the media helps to see and produce these differences. My research question is: What is the relationship between the media, (which includes newspapers, posters, and films), and how the Dirty War was portrayed and its impact on the formation of the collective memory within Argentina? Were there different interpretations of the Argentine past, which have now led to the current division within Argentina? My argument is that there is a strong divide amongst the memory of the past within Argentina, in which the media plays a role in emphasizing these differences. The media, involving newspaper articles, posters, and films have been lacking significant coverage, allowing some to forget the past of the Dirty War. For the media that has been available, they have portrayed the war as a horrifying event and the darkest period of Argentinean history. These forms of media create fear and portray the importance of keeping these tragic events alive, therefore, reinforcing the inability for some to reconcile with their past. This difference in remembering the war has led to the inability to form a collective memory and has lead to disunity and a democracy well embedded with the history of state terror.
https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2015/program/213