Authenticity, identity and narrative inequality: struggling in times of peace to be a Malvinas war veteran

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes narratives of the Malvinas war by a group of Argentine non-recognized veterans. Our aim is to understand the discursive conditions of their situation, which leaves them in an unequal position with respect to other veterans. Analysis will show that their stories are shaped in a way which is not compatible with the hegemonic narratives about war, thus receiving an unequal legal treatment.

KEYWORDS:

• Identity construction
• narrative inequality
• linguistaic inequality
• Malvinas
• Falklands
• war veterans

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Juan Eduardo Bonnin teaches Semiotics at the University of Moreno (UNM) and the University of San Martín (UNSAM) and is a researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina. His interests include interdisciplinary research on language, inequality, and access to civil rights. His last books are Génesis política del discurso religioso: ‘Iglesia y comunidad nacional’ (1981) entre la dictadura y la democracia en Argentina (Buenos Aires, Eudeba, 2012) and Discurso religioso y discurso político en América Latina. Leyendo los borradores de Medellín (1968) (Buenos Aires, Santiago Arcos, 2013).

Notes

1. The noun ‘veterans’ implies, in all three denominations, that they actually engaged in combat during the war. The modifiers stress different aspects of their identity: ‘TOAS’ means ‘Theater of Operations in the South Atlantic’, a denomination which includes the continental shelf, the sea and the Islands. ‘Continental’ intends to describe their actual location during the conflict. ‘Non-recognized’ evokes their ultimate demand: to be legally acknowledged as Malvinas veterans. Cfr. the detailed analysis by Rodriguez (2010).