Performativity, Memory and Commemoration: The Experience of MarchaRearme in Post-dictatorial Chile

Abstract

In 2005, after research into the march commemorating the 1973 Chilean coup d’etat, a group of social scientists decided to develop a performative action to intervene in the commemoration, with the aim of promoting new ways to remember this period of their history. This article deals with the analysis of the way that the march was accomplished, through the process of organizing and conducting a performative action, called MarchaRearme, and by analyzing its fundamentals and potential. The article demonstrates how the notion of performativity was central to this developmental process and its subsequent analysis. Concerning this experience, the article further discusses the possibilities and scope of the notion of performativity in research and social intervention, particularly in the area related to the politics and memories of the violent and confrontational past of Chilean society. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0802367