Des/legitimación de las memorias históricas: Valoración en discursos pedagógicos intermodales de enseñanza básica chilena

Abstract

This article analyzes the valuative intermodal component that is incorporated in the representation of human rights violations committed by Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship (1973-1990) in History textbooks. The study examines sixth grade Chilean History textbooks that have been selected by the Ministry of Education. We investigate the codification of inscribed and evoked valuation in its multimodal configuration, specifically in the integration between images, their captions and the body of the text. In order to understand the valuative meaning expressed in a bimodal manner, we integrate the APPRAISAL framework (Martin & White, 2005) and the proposal for a multimodal analysis elaborated mainly by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) and Painter, Martin and Unsworth (2013). Our analyses show that the semiotic spaces built in the History textbooks represent human rights violations as a resource of historical knowledge, with low presence of human beings, high prominence of circumstatialization of the repression, and limited reflection on the processes that caused the state violence in the country. The unit 'photograph + caption' functions as a primary source that construes an objectified discourse that privileges the rituals of denunciation and social restoration.