Intertextuality in pedagogical recontextualization of the Chilean recent past

Abstract

In this article we discuss certain semantic resources used by authors of history textbooks to negotiate intertextuality in the discourse of the Chilean recent past. We particularly take into consideration the rol of the official discourses of human rights violations (Rettig Report, Valech Report) and the collective memories that circulate in the Chilean society in relation to the recontextualized elaboration of historical explanations in pedagogic discourses. The notion of intertextuality (Halliday 1994; Fairclough 1992, 2003; Achugar 2008) is analyzed in conjunction with the semantic system of ENGAGEMENT proposed by the appraisal framework (Martin y White 2005), and it is explored as a topological space of semantic regions that gradually confluence ones into others (Fuller 1995). The analysis shows that in history textbooks, the intertextualiy regarding the construction of explanations of recent Chilean past of human right violations committed by the Pinochet’s Dictatorship (1973-1990), could be better explained from the areas of interpersonal negotiation of the sources of attitudes, which for this traumatic national past come from the collective memories, the individual opinions and the official documents originated by the Chilean Government.