Abstract Book of the 7th International Conference on Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
Year: 2025
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Performative Writing in the Creation of Che Guevara in Diarios de motocicleta:Notas de viaje por América Latina
Deanna Mihaly
ABSTRACT:
“Ernesto Che Guevara belongs to the collective memory of the Americas, serving as an iconic figure of resistance and revolution. Taking a critical stance in objection to the persona-fication of Guevara, Anthony Daniels states: “Guevara is not so much an historical figure as a tourist destination (22)” Daniels does not offer a defense of the man, addressing only what he deems to be the unworthy idol, the product of a society seeking an aesthetically-pleasing screen on which to project fantasies of subversive rebellion. The “St. Che of Cuba libre (22),” as Daniels describes him, makes his first appearance in Guevara’s travelogue. Although the work may be unarguably labeled autobiographical, its link to the real man weakens as the character Che Guevara emerges. The writer displaces himself in favor of a literary figure that will ultimately live decades beyond Che’s own tragic end.
In order to understand how Guevara molds his travel memories into a literary rendering of himself, it will be helpful to discover the performative aspects of his early narrative. Performative writing, according to Karen Pollock, should be subjective, consequential and nervous (80). Guevara perfectly illustrates the nervousness that distinguishes performative writing; he edits himself within the text, allowing the reader to glimpse not only the wizard behind the curtain, but also the human struggle to articulate divine universal truths. The writer Guevara performs for his readers the transformation of the character Guevara, from innocence and learned ideals, to consciousness and an empirical ideology. This presentation purports to locate within the travelogue Diarios de Motocicleta the performative aspects of the work that launch the elevation of Che the icon over the man himself, of the character over its creator.”
Keywords: Argentina, Baudrillard, Diarios, Guevara, Travleogue