"Una retórica del disimulo: Discurso periodístico y memoria de los 70 en la narrativa de Tomás Eloy Martínez" / "A Rhetoric of (Dis)Simulation: Journalistic Discourse and Memory of the 70s in Tomás Eloy Martínez's Narrative"
Open Access
Author:
Neyret, Juan Pablo
Graduate Program:
Spanish
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
February 28, 2012
Committee Members:
Laurence E Prescott, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor Laurence E Prescott, Committee Chair/Co-Chair Julia Cuervo Hewitt, Committee Member John Andres Ochoa, Committee Member Thomas Oliver Beebee, Committee Member Prof Aníbal González Pérez, Special Member
Keywords:
Literature Journalism History Politics Argentina Tomás Eloy Martínez
Abstract:
The purpose of this dissertation is to show that Argentinean journalist and writer Tomás Eloy Martínez (1934-2010) seeks to bring to the fore, in a dissimulated way, the discourse of the 1970s guerrilla group Montoneros, therefore recovering utopia in the era of the so called “end of history.” The corpus includes three novels that I consider a trilogy: La novela de Perón (The Perón Novel, 1985), Santa Evita (1995), and El cantor de tango (The Tango Singer, 2004).
I argue that all of these novels are rewritings of a New Journalism narration by Peronist guerilla group Montoneros about the kidnapping, summary trial, and execution of former dictator Pedro Eugenio Aramburu. This narration is entitled “Cómo murió Aramburu” and was published in 1974, though the facts took place in 1970.
Although scholars have already studied the relationship between journalism and literature, I argue that Martinez’s novels are unique in their use of journalistic discourse as a means for the rhetoric which usually only includes historical and literary discourses. In this way, journalistic discourse works as a mediator/translator between history (fact) and literature (fiction) in order to bring back memory (re-presentation of fact through fiction).
