The narrative identity in question: paradoxical zones of experience

Abstract

Focusing on the discourses of post-dictatorial memory in Chile and  Argentina, this paper aims to question the problem of collective identity,  highlighting its contradictions and fracture points. More specifically, it shows  how the “ontological anchoring” of the “thematic roles” (hero, resistance fighter;  tyrant, torturer), essential for the construction of the historical and judicial  narrative, is questioned by the micro-narratives that reveal the inherent  complexities of the individuals who embody them. Between collaboration under  constraint, dissidence, Stockholm syndrome and “survivor’s shame”, this paper  examines the multiplicity of “enunciating instances” which, upstream of the  collective actors, lead us to problematize the very concept of “identity”, and to  dissociate its different fields of manifestation (historical, juridical, political,  intersubjective, intimate...).