The sacred as a source of national identity in the Argentinian public discourse of the 19th century

Abstract

Beginning with Teun van Dijk’s studies, the notion of discourse is handled, but this concept is inscribed in the crossroads of problems related to power, oppression and context. The aim is to investigate some characteristic examples of Argentine public discourse from independence onwards (with such authors as E. Echeverría, D. F. Sarmiento or L. Mansilla), when religious arguments formed the background of the nationalist apologetic debate. The reasoning put forward in Argentine political speeches and press articles indicates that the context of “civilisation” required an indispensable basis in theology and the social sciences. In short, we see how the religious discourse underlies the debate that does not free itself from oppression. It will be interesting to discover the context of colonial Christianity in the La Plata River region in the way it argued the recently conquered freedom and the supposed ethical principles of the projected and imagined Argentinian national community.