African Yearbook of Rhetoric

The archive of the Intelligence Directorate of the Buenos Aires Provincial Police (DIPBA) formed part of the network that made possible –and legitimized– the kidnapping and disappearance of people during the last Argentine military dictatorship (1976-1983). This paper analyzes the rhetorical devices that underpin the pseudo-juridical nature of the intelligence reports found in the archive. These reports transform the pragmatic value of the extralinguistic context through a variety of discursive strategies including the “juridization” of the enunciation scene, and the fabrication of evidence based on testimonies, expert discourse, and political and ideological considerations. However, the leadership of the armed forces monopolized the “court” position. I propose that it is necessary to distinguish between the concept of “pseudo-juridicity” (represented in this case by the assignment of a fictional legal status to the secret intelligence report) and the “juridization” of the enunciative scene through the discourse of reports. It is impossible to think about juridization without thinking about the problem of the validity of law, but it is also imperative to point out that this enunciative juridization, as a political-discursive device, was deeply framed in anti-juridicity and in the State terrorism displayed during the last military dictatorship. In this way, the “juridization” of the enunciation scene attempted to articulate legal and non-legal spheres.

This paper examines the ways audience is constructed in intelligence files dealing with literary works produced during the first years (1976-1978) of last Argentinean dictatorship. The files, currently held at the Archive of the Direction of Intelligence of the Police of the Province of Buenos Aires (DIPBA), were part of a complex censorship system during that period. The construction of the audience by the censors is understood as a rhetorical strategy used to allow or forbid the circulation of literary works. Though the premises and the values presented as self-evident in the files, this paper analyzes the ideologemes that sustained literary censorship during those years. This approach is exemplified by an analysis of the files pertaining to La alcancía del Sol by Mijail Prishvin, Obras escogidas by Iván Frankó, Pequeños animales abatidos by Alejandro Sieveking and Dar la cara by Manuel Orestes Nieto.

This paper addresses the final strategies of the Apartheid regime in order to deepen the historical discernment of the South African State. It aims to contribute towards the discussion on the national condition and the establishment of an expedient State strategy.

The article explores the organization, control and espionage activities of the intelligence archives in Argentina, and their communication protocols. The aim is to present preliminary results of a comparative study of intelligence reports about students made by informants from the DIPBA (1959-1974) and the DGI (1967-1975). It investigates the spies’ writing style and the ways students under constant surveillance are described. The article is organized into three sections: the first outlines the predominant discursive genres in the corpus, taking into account the communication routines of the communities studied; the second includes a description of the textual sequences that organize the transcription of the gaze; the third analyzes the description of the students and professors under surveillance and the construction of an anti-ethical world. The article concludes that a “hidden” service paradoxically found it difficult to control the public dissemination of its adversaries' worldview.

To investigate the discursive communities and the scopic regimes involved in the so-called “repression files” implies dealing with cross-discipline approaches on Visual studies and Discourse analysis. What is there behind the presumption of “dangerousness” leading to the seizure of photographs by police forces? The knot woven out of images and control stages different visual fields in dispute: primarily, an order framed by a stark gaze cast by surveillance forces on the seized photographs. In spite of its hegemony, however, every reality comprises at least two sides: the reverse of this worldview which deems itself impartial, its visual countershot, is dominated by the bodily disposition of the actors portrayed. Finally, delving into the images archived by repressive organizations also reveals an unfathomable off-screen space, which expands beyond the recorded frames.