Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
P??rez Melgosa, Adri? n
Date
2012-08-01
Keywords
Argentine Literature, Civilization and Barbarism, Eva Per??n, Fronteras, National identity, Peronismo | Latin American literature--Latin American studies--Gender studies | Latin American literature--Latin American studies--Gender studies | Argentine Literature, Civilization and Barbarism, Eva Per??n, Fronteras, National identity, Peronismo
Department
Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/71514
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
Reflecting on the figure of Eva Per??n, V.S. Naipaul comments; 'The truth begins to disappear; it is not relevant to the legend.' In his novel Santa Evita , Tom? s Eloy Mart?à nez writes 'Little by little Evita began to turn into a story that, before it ended, kindled another.' This dissertation explores the cultural transformations of the figure of Eva Per??n, from political icon to the object of multiple representations in mass culture, literature and art, 'Evita.' During the 1940s and 50s, the rapid spread of radio, cinema, and television allowed Peronism to broadcast its struggle on behalf of the descamisados as a performance in which Evita was the main performer. This dissertation will show that from her multifaceted character, the popular collective imagination projected an array of representations associated with an archive of images of social, religious and gender ideals: Mother of the Nation, Savior of the Poor, Madonna, and Saint Evita, among numerous others. As the centerpiece of a corpus of literary and artistic representations, Evita becomes a metaphor of the central controversy of Argentine identity --what this dissertation labels La Gran Discusi??n--best articulated in Sarmiento's question: ??Qu1 somos? Sarmiento's attempt to answer that question has been traditionally interpreted as his depicting the forces of Civilization and Barbarism as mutually exclusive and as a statement that only one of them would eventually rescue the 'true" Argentine essence; in that tradition, cultural appropriations of the figure of Evita present her as either a deviation from a lost civilized greatness or a liberation from that oppressive dream. This dissertation, however, reads Sarmiento's work itself as an example of the Argentine dilemma because, under the influence of Romanticism and his own autodidact's literacy, he also recognized the ineluctable presence of the oral culture of the other, tacitly acknowledging that Argentina's destiny rests on recognizing its hybrid identity. Based on this reading of Argentine culture, this dissertation demonstrates that in the breadth of 'Evitas' in mass communication, popular media, literature and the fine arts, every representation of her inevitably embodies the convergence of the national polarities, re-enacting La Gran Discusi??n. | Reflecting on the figure of Eva Per??n, V.S. Naipaul comments; 'The truth begins to disappear; it is not relevant to the legend.' In his novel Santa Evita , Tom? s Eloy Mart?Ánez writes 'Little by little Evita began to turn into a story that, before it ended, kindled another.' This dissertation explores the cultural transformations of the figure of Eva Per??n, from political icon to the object of multiple representations in mass culture, literature and art, 'Evita.' During the 1940s and 50s, the rapid spread of radio, cinema, and television allowed Peronism to broadcast its struggle on behalf of the descamisados as a performance in which Evita was the main performer. This dissertation will show that from her multifaceted character, the popular collective imagination projected an array of representations associated with an archive of images of social, religious and gender ideals: Mother of the Nation, Savior of the Poor, Madonna, and Saint Evita, among numerous others. As the centerpiece of a corpus of literary and artistic representations, Evita becomes a metaphor of the central controversy of Argentine identity --what this dissertation labels La Gran Discusi??n--best articulated in Sarmiento's question: ??Qu1 somos? Sarmiento's attempt to answer that question has been traditionally interpreted as his depicting the forces of Civilization and Barbarism as mutually exclusive and as a statement that only one of them would eventually rescue the 'true" Argentine essence; in that tradition, cultural appropriations of the figure of Evita present her as either a deviation from a lost civilized greatness or a liberation from that oppressive dream. This dissertation, however, reads Sarmiento's work itself as an example of the Argentine dilemma because, under the influence of Romanticism and his own autodidact's literacy, he also recognized the ineluctable presence of the oral culture of the other, tacitly acknowledging that Argentina's destiny rests on recognizing its hybrid identity. Based on this reading of Argentine culture, this dissertation demonstrates that in the breadth of 'Evitas' in mass communication, popular media, literature and the fine arts, every representation of her inevitably embodies the convergence of the national polarities, re-enacting La Gran Discusi??n. | 363 pages
Recommended Citation
Trica-Flores, Silvina, "SOMBRAS TERRIBLES DE EVITA. Representaciones del debate nacional: del
letrado al piquetero" (2012). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 720.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/720