SOMBRAS TERRIBLES DE EVITA. Representaciones del debate nacional: del letrado al piquetero
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Authors
Trica-Flores, Silvina
Issue Date
1-Aug-12
Type
Dissertation
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
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 <em>Santa Evita </em>, Tom? s Eloy
Mart?Ã 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
<em>descamisados</em> 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 <em>La Gran
Discusi??n</em>--best articulated in Sarmiento's question: <em>??Qu1 somos?</em> 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 <em>other</em>, 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
<em>La Gran Discusi??n</em>.
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 <em>Santa Evita </em>, 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 <em>descamisados</em> 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 <em>La Gran Discusi??n</em>--best articulated in Sarmiento's question: <em>??Qu1 somos?</em> 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 <em>other</em>, 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 <em>La Gran Discusi??n</em>.
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 <em>Santa Evita </em>, 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 <em>descamisados</em> 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 <em>La Gran Discusi??n</em>--best articulated in Sarmiento's question: <em>??Qu1 somos?</em> 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 <em>other</em>, 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 <em>La Gran Discusi??n</em>.
Description
363 pg.
Citation
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University:
Stony Brook, NY.
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.