Documenting Dictatorship: Writing and Resistance in Chile's Vicaría de la Solidaridad

Bell, Vikki. 2021. Documenting Dictatorship: Writing and Resistance in Chile's Vicaría de la Solidaridad. Theory, Culture & Society, 38(1), pp. 53-78. ISSN 0263-2764 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

In Documentality (2013), Maurizio Ferraris argues that documents are at the heart of social institutions. Taking this notion as a cue, this piece considers a key organisation in the resistance to state violence and Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile, the Vicaria de la Solidaridad, and focuses on the remarkable document where the desperate stories of people detained, disappeared and murdered following the coup in 1973 were recorded. This process of registration adopted an overtly rational, administrative response akin to the ‘bio-political’ modes of governing life that Foucault described. As such, it was also built upon a refusal to allow the lives of a section of the population to be cast as without value. Moreover, it ‘deferred’ to a future, in which such documentation would be an invaluable record of injustice. Its legacy is not confined to legal forums, however; academic work and Nicola´s Franco’s artwork La Sabana (The Sheet, 2017) have also emerged.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276420937470

Keywords:

archives, art, Chile, documentality, Pinochet dictatorship, writing

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Sociology

Dates:

DateEvent
8 May 2020Accepted
6 August 2020Published Online
January 2021Published

Item ID:

29154

Date Deposited:

12 Aug 2020 11:13

Last Modified:

28 Apr 2022 12:18

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/29154

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