Alegoría e ironía bajo censura en la Argentina del Proceso

© 2009 Dr. Mara FavorettoDuring the period of military government in Argentina (1976 – 1983) a machinery of censorship was imposed. The state had a systematic plan of cultural repression and manipulation of public opinion. Even though there was not an official censorship office, the regime had an organised and sophisticated operating control over publication and public performance. However, the dissident writers and lyricists examined in this study developed strategies of resistance that depended largely on allegory and irony to convey subtle and oblique oppositional messages. By means of a detailed rhetorical analysis of a varied literary and popular corpus this study examines the functioning of allegory and irony under the constraints of censorship. The corpus includes the musical production of one of the most outstanding representatives of the rock nacional movement and four novels. The fictional narratives selected are divided into two symmetrical groups: in each group, one novel is written by a female writer and the other by a male author; one has reached a large readership and popularity while the other had a delayed reception but has won critical acclaim. Far from repressing forms of expression, the regime’s censorship policies fueled creativity in authors and composers. Irony and allegory were adapted to new necessities. While the former was used as a means to avoid political commitment, a use identified in this study as evasive irony, the latter schooled the reader in alternative ways of thought at the same time as it allowed multiple interpretations. This thesis shows that irony and allegory, as literary figures, can evolve and assume new functions, adapting themselves to the different political circumstances in which they are used