Using a semiotic framework, this article discusses how the Argentine comic
Buscavidas (by Alberto Breccia and Carlos Trillo) can be used as material
for historical analysis in reference to the military dictatorship in Argentina from
1976 to 1983. The author examines the comic's representation of the dictatorship and
its participation in the creation of a collective conception of the dictatorship at
the time of its publication in 1981 and 1982, and of a collective memory of the
dictatorship after the democratic transition in 1983. The discussion focuses
primarily on the comic in the context of the Argentine comics field, and of the
human rights organization, the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo.
Bonafini, Hebe de
and
Sánchez, Matilde
(2002) ‘The Madwomen at the Plaza de
Mayo’, in
G. Nouzeilles
and
G. Montaldo
(eds) The Argentina Reader: History, Culture, Politics, pp.
429-439.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press
.
2.
Breccia, Alberto
(1994) Obras completas, No. 1.
Buenos Aires: Doedytores
.
3.
Breccia, Alberto
and
Trillo, Carlos
(2001) Buscavidas.
Paris: Rackham
(French version).
4.
Breccia, Alberto
and
Trillo, Carlos
(2004) Buscavidas.
Barcelona: Planeta de Agostini
5.
Breccia, Alberto
,
Breccia, Enrique
and
Oesterheld, Héctor
(1997[1968]) Che.
Buenos Aires: Grupo Imaginador de Ediciones
.
6.
Burke, Peter
(2001) Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical
Evidence.
London: Reaktion Books
.
7.
Dabène, Olivier
(1999) América Latina en el Siglo XX.
Madrid: Editorial Sintesis
.
8.
Gedi, Noa
and
Elam, Yigal
(1996)
‘Collective Memory -What Is It?’
, History and Memory8(1):
30-50
.
9.
Gillis, John
(ed.) (1994) Commemorations: The Politics of National
Identity.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
.
10.
Gociol, Judith and Rosemberg, Diego (2000) La Historieta Argentina: Una
Historia. Buenos Aires: Ediciones de la Flor.
11.
Invernizzi, Hernan and Gociol, Judith (2002) Un Golpe a Los Libros:
Represion a la Cultura Durante la Última Dictadura Militar.
Buenos Aires: EUDEBA.
12.
Jelin, Elizabeth (2002) Los Trabajos de la Memoria. Madrid: Siglo
XXI de España Editores.
13.
Jelin, Elizabeth
and
Kaufman, Susana
(2000) ‘Layers of Memories: Twenty Years After
in Argentina’, in
T. G. Ashplant
,
G. Dawson
and
M. Roper
(eds) The Politics of War, Memory and Commemoration, pp.
89-110.
London: Routledge
14.
Johansen, Jørgen Dines
(2002) Literary Discourse: A Semiotic Approach to
Literature.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press
.
15.
Jordanova, Ludmilla
(2000) History in Practice.
London: Arnold
.
16.
Magnussen, Anne (1999) ‘El cómic como texto: Una lectura
de “Crónicas Incongruentes 7” de Miguelanxo
Prado’, in H.P. Lund (ed.) La langue, les signes et les
êtres, pp. 111-25. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
17.
Magnussen, Anne
(2000) ‘The Semiotics of C.S. Peirce as a
Theoretical Framework for the Understanding of Comics’, in
A. Magnussen
and
H.-C. Christiansen
(eds) Comics & Culture: Analytical and Theoretical Approaches to
Comics, pp. 193-207.
Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press
.
18.
Magnussen, Anne
(2001a)
‘Spanske tegneserier i 1970erne og 1980erne - fra politiske
budskaber til europæisk integration’ (Spanish comics in
the 1970s and 1980s - from political messages to European integration)
, Den Jyske Historiker (91/92):
207-230
.
19.
Magnussen, Anne (2001b) ‘Spanish Comics, Semiotics and Society:
Comics as Representations of Social Reality 1975-1990’, unpublished PhD
dissertation, University of Copenhagen.
20.
Martin, Jean-Philippe
(1998)
‘La question du réalisme dans le Bar à Joe’
, Neuvième Art: Les Cahiers du Musée de la
bande dessinée (3):
38-45
.
21.
Mora Bordel, Javier
(2002)
‘Lirismo y compromiso’
, Tebeosfera (8), URL consulted December 2004 %5Bhttp://www.tebeosfera.com/Documento/Articulo/Argentina/Oesterheld.htm%5D.
22.
Muñoz, José
and
Sampayo, Carlos
(1998)
‘Récits croisés’
, Neuvième Art: Les Cahiers du Musée de la
bande dessinée (3):
30-37
.
23.
Muñoz Giménez, Germán (2004)
‘Buscavidas: Carlos Trillo y Alberto Breccia cara a cara con la
Crueldad’, Planeta de Agostini, URL consulted December 2004 %5Bhttp://www.planetadeagostinicomics.com/articulos/ver_articulos.asp?mes=9&ano=2004&id=224%5D.
24.
Nora, Pierre
(1996) ‘General Introduction: Between Memory and
History’, in
Pierre Nora
(ed.) Realms of Memory. The Construction of the French Past, I: Conflict
and Divisions.
New York: Columbia University Press
.
25.
Nunca Más (1984) Informe de la Comisión Nacional
sobre la Desaparición de Personas (1984) URL consulted December 2004 %5Bhttp://www.desaparecidos.org/arg/conadep/nuncamas/nuncamas.html%5D.
26.
Peirce, Charles Sanders
(1931-58) Collected Papers.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
.
27.
Romero, Luis Alberto
(2002) A History of Argentina in the Twentieth Century.
University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press
.
28.
Sasturain, Juan (1995a[1984]) ‘Crónica de la sonrisa y
el poder’, in J. Sasturain (ed.) El Domicilio de la Aventura, pp.
31-43. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Colihue.
29.
Sasturain, Juan (1995b[1987]) ‘Breccia o la incomodidad’,
in J. Sasturain (ed.) El Domicilio de la Aventura, pp. 137-46. Buenos
Aires: Ediciones Colihue.
30.
Taylor, Diana
(1997) Disappearing Acts: Spectacles of Gender and
Nationalism in Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press
.
