Abstract

HERRERA, Gauthier Alexandre. Name of the victims of the State -the discursive construction in the written press-. Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2021, vol.44, n.1, pp.169-194.  Epub Nov 28, 2021. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v44n1.86102.

The peace process with the FARC-EP paved the way for a national political discussion around the notion of victimhood and the role victims play in the collective narrative. Publications in the press express and are part of the social representation that the nation makes in relation to the existence of victims of the State. These discourses produce material for the edification of collective memory and for the construction of national history. This article starts from a lexicographical analysis of a press corpus from January 2015 to December 2016 on the subject of political violence, the representation of victims and par-ticularly of victims of State that circulate in it, and finally questions the view that people has about the victims' social position in the discourse of the Colombian written press. The analysis helps revealing the use of language that serves to name victims and give them recognition. On the other hand, we reveal through the discursive analysis the difficulty of Colombian society to organize, represent, and conceptually categorize the different victims of the conflict. This approach explores the resistance state victims endure towards social recognition. The article also deals with the controversy that arises when positioning this issue in the public space. Through the pragmatics in the analysis of the discourse, the article shows how the symbolic conception that people has about the victims of the State can influence the future of Colombian society.

Descriptors: collective memory, democracy, leadership, war.

Keywords : collective identities; conflict; memory; politics; representation.

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