New publication: The construction of the moral self in autobiographical memory: being an 'ordinary man' within the experience of dictatorship

Bietti, L.(2011). The construction of the moral self in autobiographical memory: being an 'ordinary man' within the experience of dictatorship in Argentina. In S. Salvatore, J. Valsiner, J. Travers Simon & A; Gennaro (eds.)Yearbook of Idiographic Science 3, pp. 253-276. Rome: Firera & Liuzzo Group. [Free download the whole issue]

Abstract

This paper explores the discursive construction of the moral self in an open-ended interview conducted in March 2008 with an ordinary man born in 1940 in Buenos Aires. The interview was about his memories of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship in Argentina. His memories of the dictatorship were not affected by the ideological changes introduced by Kirchner in 2003. Moreover, the interviewee positions himself on the other side of the ideological spectrum by indirectly supporting the actions committed by the perpetrators of the military regime. This viewpoint in relation to the troubling past represents a marginal stance in Argentina today. Therefore, it has to be sustained by actions of self-management in order to create a positive self-representation during the communicative interaction. These actions are driven by mechanisms of moral disengagement, which are linguistically realized through discourse strategies in accordance with shifting context models.