Intellectuals and politics: Socio-discursive analysis of the Pasado y Presente and Carta Abierta groups

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze the construction of two different intellectual subjects in the discursive productions of the group Pasado y Presente (specifically the first two years of the magazine, 1963-1965) and Carta Abierta (the first three writings of 2008) in Argentina, inscribed in two divergent states of social discourse. In the first place, the importance of investigating the figure of the intellectual is raised, to then make a brief overview of the history of these two groups, considered relevant in the history of the country. Secondly, it is analyzed, from a socio-semiotic perspective, the predominant and recurrent logics that appear in the discursive materiality, in which world views, fetishes or taboos, and types of epochal recipients are activated. The results of the research show, on one hand, the construction of a young-revolutionary intellectual subject and, on the other, a critical-organic intellectual subject, both crossed by the common discussion about what an intellectual should be and what role they should have in the socio-political processes of the country.