10
This article was downloaded by: [North Dakota State University] On: 10 December 2014, At: 08:11 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies/Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rclc20 Introductory Essay: “The Masses do not Think, They Feel” Rita De Grandis a a University of British Columbia Published online: 06 May 2014. To cite this article: Rita De Grandis (1999) Introductory Essay: “The Masses do not Think, They Feel”, Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies/ Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes, 24:48, 125-132, DOI: 10.1080/08263663.1999.10816779 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08263663.1999.10816779 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages,

Introductory Essay: “The Masses do not Think, They Feel”

  • Upload
    rita

  • View
    214

  • Download
    2

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Introductory Essay: “The Masses do not Think, They Feel”

This article was downloaded by: [North Dakota State University]On: 10 December 2014, At: 08:11Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK

Canadian Journal of LatinAmerican and CaribbeanStudies/Revue canadienne desétudes latino-américaines etcaraïbesPublication details, including instructions for authorsand subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rclc20

Introductory Essay: “TheMasses do not Think, TheyFeel”Rita De Grandisa

a University of British ColumbiaPublished online: 06 May 2014.

To cite this article: Rita De Grandis (1999) Introductory Essay: “The Masses do notThink, They Feel”, Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies/Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes, 24:48, 125-132, DOI:10.1080/08263663.1999.10816779

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08263663.1999.10816779

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all theinformation (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform.However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make norepresentations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness,or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and viewsexpressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, andare not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of theContent should not be relied upon and should be independently verified withprimary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for anylosses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages,

Page 2: Introductory Essay: “The Masses do not Think, They Feel”

and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of theContent.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes.Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan,sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone isexpressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found athttp://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nor

th D

akot

a St

ate

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

8:11

10

Dec

embe

r 20

14

Page 3: Introductory Essay: “The Masses do not Think, They Feel”

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY: "THE MASSES DO NOT THINK, THEY FEEL"

RITA DE GRANDIS University ofBritish Columbia

Abstract. This brief essay introduces the readcr to a collection of articles on thc life and times of Argentine First Lady Eva Peron, one ofhistory's most enigmatic figures. The authors who have contributed to the volume bring a diverse range ofviewpoints to the exercise, although a number of themes emerge with respect to modalities of repre­sentations of Evita over time and through various media.

Résumé. Ce bref exposé présente au lecteur une collection d' essais sur la vi e et I' époque d 'Eva Perón, la premiere dame d' Argentine et I 'un des personnages lcs plus énigmatiques de I 'histoire. Les auteurs ayant contribué à cc recuei! apportent une grande variété de points de vue à la discussion, bien qu 'ii cn ressorte un certain nombre de themes communs ayant trait aux modalités de la représentation d'Evita au fi! du temps et parles canaux de divers médias.

Lo que era feminismo, lo que había sido, los sacrificios que había ostado, nunca lo supo. Aprendió de boca de un antifeminista (todo fascista lo era) una falsa definición dei feminismo y en su libro se burla de una campana sin la cual ella misma no hubiese !legado donde llegó, ni hubiese estado en tela dejuicio el voto (obtenido ya en tantos otros países). De ahí su equivocación en esa materia.

- Victoria Ocampo, Autobiografia II "E! imperio insular"

This special issue is devoted to Eva Perón. It offers a sarnple of contempo­rary scholarly criticism ofthe myths ofEva Perón, particularly in contem­porary culture, both locally and globally. The idea for this volume had its origins in an interdisciplinary session on Eva Perón organized at the March

Canadian Journal ofLatin American and Carihhean Studies, Vol. 24, No. 48 (1999): 125-132

125

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nor

th D

akot

a St

ate

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

8:11

10

Dec

embe

r 20

14

Page 4: Introductory Essay: “The Masses do not Think, They Feel”

126 CJLACS I RCELAC 24/48 1999

1 998 Conference of the Canadian Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies held in Vancouver.

The volume is organized in part along a chronological dimension. Marysa Navarro, Viviana Patroni and María dei Carmen Sillato, to begin with, focus on the first Peronist period. Navarro concentrates on politicai and historical documents, sociological accounts and literary narratives that account for the making of the Evita myth in its various manifestations. Patroni examines the evolution and transforrnation of the labour move­ment in relation to the central role played by Eva Perón in this process, and Sillato studies Eva Perón 's autobiography My Mission in Life, focus­ing on problems of genre and authorship.

Along with the historical dimension, an attempt is made to link the articles by drawing connections based on a particular set of assumptions, ideas and concepts that underlie these works. The idea to combine and confront different methodologies responds to the constant challenges posed by interdisciplinary research.

The articles analyze a wide-range ofmodalities ofrepresentations of Eva Perón through films, musicais, newspapers, TV programs, literary texts, as well as historical and politicai documents. The analytical per­spectives include feminist and gender considerations, along with socio­logical, historical, politicai and literary perspectives, offering a complex account of the myth of Eva Perón and its productive reforrnulations.

Ali the contributors make evident that the historical emergence of Eva Perón on the public scene and the symbolic power ofher myth relate directly to the forrnation of mass culture This would lead us to think, concurring with Jesús Martín Barbero, that in Latin America any attempt to understand the phenomenon of populism as a particular forrn of nation­alism-in its various forrnulations, particularly in the first half ofthe 1930s and 1940s-is inextricably linked to the emergence of mass society, mass culture and the culture industry. The 1930s were important years in Latin America given the emergent processes of industrialization and moderni­zation. Politically, they were even more criticai given the "irruption" of the masses in urban areas. ln many countries this phenomenon character­ized the state as the interpreter of popular aspirations, drawing its na­tionallegitirnacy through the masses. Populism became dominant in a state which sought to strengthen its legitimacy by taking upon itself the needs and aspirations of the less affluent sectors of society. Indeed, for Jesús Martín Barbero, populism was the politicai strategy that characterized, with varying degrees of intensity, the social struggle in virtually ali Latin American societies between 1930 and 1960.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nor

th D

akot

a St

ate

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

8:11

10

Dec

embe

r 20

14

Page 5: Introductory Essay: “The Masses do not Think, They Feel”

De Grandis I "The Masses Do Not Think, They Feel" 127

The historical emergence of Eva Perón cannot be dissociated from these social and cultural formations. They help to explain how effective she might have been at using the social artifacts created by mass culture to consolidate new forms of social cohesion required by a rapidly industrial­ized country.

As Barbero states,

[i]n Latin America the idea of modernization which oriented the process of change and which provided nationalism with a concrete agenda for action was more a movement of economic and cultural adaptation than a reinforcement of independence. Migration and the new sources and types of work nurtured the hybridization of the popular classes, a new form of becoming present in the city. The crisis of the 193 Os unleashed an offensive ofthe country against the city anda recomposition ofsocial groups. There was a quantitative and qualitative change in the popular classes as a result ofthe appearance of a mass which could no longer be defined within the traditional social structure and that "dismantled the traditional forms of participation and representation." The presence of that mass would soon affect the whole of urban society, its way of life and thinking and, eventually, the physiognomy of the city itself. The insertion of the popular classes in the conditions of existence of a "mass society" pushed the popular movement toward a new strategy of alliances. The new social experience fashioned a new vision, a new conception of action less openly confrontational. For a time, the masses were mar­ginal. Compared with the mainstream of society, the mass was hetero­geneous and mestizo. More than an assault, the appearance ofthe masses meant that it was now impossible to continue maintaining the rigid hier­archical organization of differences that constituted society. The masses wanted work, education, health and entertainment. Massification meant simultaneously the integration of the popular classes in society and the acceptance by society ofthe masses' right to everything, a right to the goods and services which, until then, were the privilege of a few. This society could not accept the newcomers without a profound transfor­mation. This transformation, however, did not follow the patterns o r the directions that revolutionaries expected, and therefore the revolutionar­ies thought that no transformation had occurred. Massification affected everyone, but not ali perceived and experienced it in the sarne way. The upper classes quickly learned to separate the demands of the masses. For the popular classes, however, although they were more defenceless in the face ofthe new conditions, massification implied more gain than loss. The new mass culture began not only as a culture directed to the popular classes but a culture in which the masses found synthesized in

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nor

th D

akot

a St

ate

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

8:11

10

Dec

embe

r 20

14

Page 6: Introductory Essay: “The Masses do not Think, They Feel”

128 CJLACS I RCELAC 24/48 1999

the music and in the narratives ofradio and film some ofthe basic forms oftheir own way of perceiving, experiencing and expressing their world. 1

Thus, mass culture could be characterized as essentially an urban phenomenon that compensates for its open materialism-based on the supreme values of economic success and social ascent-with a supera­bundance of sentimentality and passion. Mass culture, Barbero adds,

... is the hybrid offoreign and national, ofpopular informality and bour­geois concern with upward mobility. lt is the hybrid oftwo classic types: those who try to look rich without the means to do so, "who imitate the eternal forms that characterize those better than they are," and the op­posite, those crushed by the hopelessness of the slums on the edges of the cities and in the underworld 2

These reflections on industrialization, mass society and mass culture have important consequences for the study of populism, particularly in the works of Ernesto Laclau. They allow for a new perspective on the "national problem" in terms of class relationships. Contrary to the over­simplification exercised by dependency theory-which describes the state as being merely an instrument for the interests of the hegemonic coun­tries-for Laclau and his followers a new retake on populism implies the acceptance within social theory of what can be called the Latin American "deviation." According to this deviation, the popular classes become so­cial actors as a result of the politicai crisis that accompanied the processes of industrialization in the 1930s and not by the classic route. ln doing so, the popular classes place themselves in direct relation to the state, becom­ing part of the politicai process before they can be constituted as a social class and protagonists of social transformations.

One important consequence of this Latin American process is the development of a politicized labour movement largely determined by gov­ernment economic policy and not by its relation to industry. For Barbero, this deviation from the classical Marxist schema is even more evident when considering the distinction between the "social process" and the "politicai process," conceived not in terms ofunions and politicai parties but as a relation between the labour movement and the movement towards nationhood.

Patroni's "A Discourse ofLove and Rate: Eva Perón and the Labour Movement (1940s-1950s)" illustrates this perspective clearly. What is original in her approach is that she examines Eva Perón's instrumental politicai role in achieving this consolidation. Through her, the labour move­ment loses its autonomy and slowly becomes subordinated to the state-

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nor

th D

akot

a St

ate

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

8:11

10

Dec

embe

r 20

14

Page 7: Introductory Essay: “The Masses do not Think, They Feel”

De Grandis I "The Masses Do Not Think, They Feel" 129

particularly between 1944 and 1946. Eva becomes the catalyst in this proc­ess and achieves this subordination by the power ofthe word. Her style of intervention as well as her self-representation as simply an intermediary between Perón and the masses allowed Peronism to neutralize the inher­ent contradictions of the labour movement and its politicai relationship to the state.

De Grandis demonstrates that Desanzo and Feinrnann's Eva Perón further confmns this idea of a powerful politicai alliance between Eva and the labour movement. A key scene in the 1951 film, the Cabildo Abierto, where José Espejo, secretary-general of the Labour Organization ( one of Eva's strongest supporters) proposes heras vice-president for the upcoming elections of 1952 in obvious disagreement with Perón. ln this scene, it is obvious that although Perón was head of state, Eva was the effective leader ofthe labour movement and the nation. ln addition, recent biographies of Eva Perón such as Eva Perón: La biografia by Ortíz also emphasize the independent politicai role that Eva played, particularly within the labour movement. It was this strong perception that Eva and not Perón embraced the needs and aspirations ofthe masses that eventually tumed Eva into an epic figure, the revolutionary heroine ofthe leftist Peronism ofthe 1970s.

The power of the myth of Evita as revolutionary could thus be ex­plained within this new perspective on populism, whereby the space of conflict between the masses and the state does not coincide entirely with the relationship of class and production. The contention is that there is a different and specific form of contradiction situated at the levei of social formations that puts the people in conflict with those in power. 3 This is a "popular democratic" struggle, which is characterized precisely by the historical continuity of popular traditions, in contrast with the discontinu­ity that characterizes the structures of class. Eva embodied this form of social contradiction and popular democratic struggle. The strong alliance between her, the labour movement and the masses relied precisely on her ability to reflect and give voice to these contradictions within populism.

The power ofthe politicai myth ofEvita results from populism's in­herent contradictions. Today, many argue that populism combines a po­liticai and cultural force. This force results from an experience of social class that "nationalized" the masses through populism as a state project. It is true that this "state project" might be a phenomenon of the past under the present form of democratic rule in most Latin American countries, and particularly in Argentina. 4 However, De Grandis comments on how the populist substratum ofMenem's Peronist administration still prevails, even though the state has acquired a new politicai structure through a democratic platform. This form ofPeronism preserves a certain old popu-

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nor

th D

akot

a St

ate

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

8:11

10

Dec

embe

r 20

14

Page 8: Introductory Essay: “The Masses do not Think, They Feel”

130 CJLACS I RCELAC 24/48 1999

list style and language through Menem's constant appeal to the past achievements of Peronism and its social aims. The new Peronism, under the disguise of this populist rhetoric, manages to implement social and politicai policies that exclude the needs and aspirations of the subordi­nated masses and, needless to say, their popular traditions. Thus, the rela­tionship between the subordinated classes and the people is not always evident.

Another key concept related to the formation of mass society, mass culture and populism is melodrama-a major genre of mass culture anda discursive form with a particular style and language. Severa! contributors (Sillato, Patroni, De Grandis, Santos) delve into melodrama to show how Eva Perón constructed herselfpolitically through the rhetoricallanguage ofmelodrama, which she knew so well since it was the genre she exercized as an artist that endowed her with such politicai force and appeal5 Al­though Eva's My Mission in Life presents itself as an autobiography, it fails to conform to the generic expectations of an autobiography. Leaving aside these much-debated questions, Sillato in particular examines the melodramatic component of the book through a study of the language and its dramatic structure and shows how this melodramatic component as a vehicle of self-representation conforms to the taste and canons of popular culture in mid-twentieth century Argentina. Patroni in tum refers to the melodramatic element ofEva's politicai speeches, and De Grandis claims that two films-Evita and Eva Perón-are unable to represent Eva out­side the dualisms instituted by melodrama by which Eva Perón is either a whore or a saint. Furthermore, Santos analyzes appropriations and resignifications of the Evita myth in literature, particularly in contempo­rary Argentine form, through an avant-garde group ofwriters that includes a founding "father," Manuel Puig, and his followers, Lamborghini, Copi and Aira. For these writers, the myth of Eva as a mass culture icon is crucial to the understanding not only ofthe longevity ofthis myth but also of its polymorphous character. Santos distinguishes between two groups of Argentines. One is the "legitimate children"-those who followed Eva's politicai role. These include not only writers (Rodolfo Walsh, Abel Posse) but also the Peronist Youth. On the other side are the "illegitimate" off­spring, the writers who have preferred to identifiy Eva with the artistic world. Manuel Puig paved the road for the transformation of the epic c h ar­acter of Evita into a travesty, as did !ater Copi and César A ira.

For Santos, as for De Grandis, the end ofthe millennium has retumed Eva to her origins, that is to mass culture. This explains why melodrama continues to be the genre from which to represent Eva. The whore/saint, good/evil, magnanimous/authoritarian dualisms have been possible only

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nor

th D

akot

a St

ate

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

8:11

10

Dec

embe

r 20

14

Page 9: Introductory Essay: “The Masses do not Think, They Feel”

De Grandis I "The Mas ses Do N ot Think, They F e e!" 131

through their inclusion within a character of ali these models of mass cul­ture. Yet, it is the historical character of Eva Perón that guarantees the survival of her myth, erasing the Manichaen distinctions of the melodra­matic code. ln the case of Santos, the authors she studies do it with hu­mour and irony; in the case of De Grandis, it is through a series of other visual historical accounts that the complexity of Eva's character is re­stored.

Marysa Na varro and Marta Zabaleta draw com pari sons between the recent politicai and media phenomenon of Lady Diana Spencer and the world of celebrities to which Eva Perón belonged. Navarro affirms that it was the "Wonder Woman syndrome" that gave Evita an amazing politicai power ata time when power for women was very limited. Recent multi­media images of Eva Perón and Diana Spencer share certain traits that point to female representation and politicai power. Zabaleta's article com­pares, from a feminist perspective, the lives ofthese two white, Christian, heterosexual, married, compassionate, rich and dead women, showing that the strongest aspects of their real politicai behaviour are systematically ignored, hidden and/or distorted. She also argues that both ofthem incar­nated new pattems offemininity emerging at two different stages of capi­tal accumulation and were-in the last instance-victims of institutions they helped to preserve.

Finally, another important idea underlying most contributions­despite the variations in methodology-concems representation. As Marysa Navarro asserts, echoing Barthes' concept of myth, ali renderings of Eva Perón in their various historical periods have suffered from an excess of fiction, of partisanship, of passion that prevents any objective stance on Eva. ln other words, Eva resists history and solicits fiction. In­terestingly, Navarro and Young share the sarne assumption coming from two distinct sources: one from history, the other from literature. They claim that although Eva Duarte de Perón was an historical figure whose life can be reconstructed on the basis of certain historical data and documents, a representation ofher politicai and cultural significance is no longer a ques­tion offidelity to history but offidelity to ideas or images of her that em­brace what she has come to represent. Richard Young sees in "E! simulacro," a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, and in Santa Evita, a nove! by Tomás Eloy Martínez, many of the dichotomies associated with his­torical reconstruction and representation-the real and the unreal, authen­ticity and simulacrum, the credible and the incredible-which are also at stake in any consideration of the myth of Evita.

The problematic nature of the representation of Eva is further ana­lyzed in Viviana Fridman's "Dos muertes y la construcción de la identidad

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nor

th D

akot

a St

ate

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

8:11

10

Dec

embe

r 20

14

Page 10: Introductory Essay: “The Masses do not Think, They Feel”

132 CJLACS I RCELAC 24/48 1999

argentina." Here, she takes as her point of departure Mario Szichman's nove) At 20:25 the Lady Became Immortal (1981) to trace the history of Eastem European Jewish immigrants within the national community un­der Peronism. The death of Evita frames the historical development for the characters' genealogical endeavour. Fridman draws parallels between the death of Evita and that of a family member to demonstrate how both present crucial points of convergence regarding the ideological strategies forged by the Jewish minority to incorporate themselves within the larger context of an Argentine identity. Mario Szichman 's nove) resorts to irony and parody to bring forth the ambiguity and contradictions ofthis process of identity formation.

ln this brief introduction, I can only outline some of the main issues, notions and ideas that the articles gathered in this volume present. It has been a privilege to work with such a group of stimulating scholars. I want to thank ali of them for their patience and collaboration in making this issue possible. Also, I want to thank especially Ted Hewitt, the editor of the CJLACS, for being so supportive ofthis initiative. I feel honoured to have worked with him on this project.

La desigualdad política y social que padecia me daba chuchos de indignación. Me dolía en mi vida de adolescente y en las vidas ajenas imaginadas. Luchar contra ese estado de cosas era mi firme propósito. Y luché como luchan y han luchado otras. En mi país y me avergüenza comprobarlo, los hombres son hijos dei rigor, y las mujeres mansas prefieren no disgustarlos. Solo el día en que una humillada los humilló, los llevó por delante (y merecidamente, en ese particular) cedieron y hasta se arrodillaron. Me refiero a Eva Duarte. Intencionalmente digo Eva Duarte y no Eva Perón6

Notes

I. Jesús Martín Barbero, Communication, Culture and Hegemony From Media to Mediations (London: Sage Publications, 1993), pp. 156-159.

2. Ibid., p. 159. 3. Ibid., p. 162. 4. lbid., p. 162. 5. For further insights into the connections bctween the language ofpopulism, melo­

drama and the rhetoric of Peronism, see Rita De Grandis, "The Voice of Alejandro 'Negro' Dolina: Towards a Repositioning ofPopulist Discourse," Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 16 (1997): 127-146, and William Rowe and Vivian Schelling Memory and Modernity: Popular Culture in Latin Ame rica (London: Verso, 1993), pp. 169-170.

6. Victoria Ocampo, Autobiografia II "EI imperio insular" (Buenos Aires: Sur, 1980), pp. 178-179.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nor

th D

akot

a St

ate

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

8:11

10

Dec

embe

r 20

14