The Publishing Industry’s Role in the Ideological Legitimation of the Radical Right in Latin America

Abstract

This article analyzes the peritext elements crafted by different publishers in the dissemination of five political books associated with the Latin American radical right: La fatal ignorancia. La anorexia cultural de la derecha frente al avance ideológico progresista by Axel Kaiser, El libro negro de la nueva izquierda. Ideología de género o subversión cultural by Nicolás Márquez and Agustín Laje, Cómo hablar con un progre. Por qué en lugar de hacerla desaparecer, la socialdemocracia incrementa la pobreza by Gloria Álvarez Cross, Cómo derrotar al neoprogresismo. Una batalla política by Álvaro Zicarelli, and La batalla cultural: Reflexiones críticas para una Nueva Derecha by Agustín Laje. Through an analysis of the discursive strategies developed in the back covers, and in the selection of the prologue writers, the level of involvement of each publisher in the accumulation of cultural and symbolic capital of the mentioned authors is determined, as well as in the legitimization of the discourses elaborated by them. Although different types of strategies used by Unión Editorial, Deusto, Sudamericana, and Harper Collins were identified, it is evident that these publishers reproduced the strategie comparison by contrast, which was used by the authors, to position the right, in all its spectrums, as a defender of individuality and the development of society; while the left, in all its spectrums, is portrayed as harmful to the nation and thus should be fought and defeated. In this way, the publishers promoted and validated, some more directly than others, a radical right discourse in a context where there is an increase in the consumption of political books of this trend.