The Censored Children's Literature of the Guerra Sucia in Argentina
Heather Stewart and Citlalie del Carmen Tello
Advisor: Profesor Rafael Gómez
Abstract:
In the years 1976 to 1983 Argentina suffered a coup led by its military powers. They occupied the democratic government and commenced the National Project of Reorganization now known as The Dirty War. Under the National Security Doctrine, the military organization articulated a repressive system of censorship in all corners of the social structure including psychological, physical, ideological, social, and political dimensions (Manriquez 565). One aspect of the prohibition included literature and it encompassed distinct books, editorials, authors and genres. In particular, children’s literature was also censored in order to protect the children from ideas that were considered dangerous through an operative that detected this kind of reading to have them pulled out of circulation (A 30 años, 6). Through our investigation, we will analyze Un elefante ocupa mucho espacio/ [An Elephant takes up a lot of Space] and El Caso Gaspar/ [The Gaspar Case] by Elsa Bornemann, Dailan Kifki by María Elena Walsh, and El pueblo que no quería ser gris/ [The Village that Did Not Want to be Gray] by Beatriz Doumerc. Through critical examination of the above stories, we will highlight the messages and central themes embedded in the literature, then discuss why they were censored by the military dictatorship.
Investigation Questions:
- What were the messages and central themes embedded in the children's stories of María Elena Walsh, Elsa Bornemann, and Beatriz Doumerc?
- Why were these stories censored by the military dictatorship during the Dirty War in Argentina?
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