El mito de la Transición democrática en Chile. El témpano de hielo de la Expo-Sevilla 1992 y las crónicas radiales de Pedro Lemebel

Abstract

In this paper I will address the processes through which, during the Chilean Democratic Transition, the concept of democracy has been converted into a myth, in its political as well as in its cultural and artistic dimensions. Drawing on Mythologies by Barthes, I will explore this phenomenon and distinguish the substantive side of democracy from the one that is functional to the neo-liberal ideology. I will then analyze the idea of democracy that emerges from Expo-Sevilla 1992 and from the radio chronicles by Pedro Lemebel. In the first case, the iceberg and the supermarket offering national resources suggest the idea of a democracy of consumerism, in a country that has been mythically refunded and completely sanitized from its bloody past. In the second case, myth – following its original meaning of “narration” – weaves a diverse national story inspired in democracy as social equality and community link, resulting in a mythification of marginality.