Press Release

Oglethorpe University to Offer Course on Eva Perón and Che Guevara

ATLANTA – History and literature are rarely associated with Madonna and political t-shirts but Oglethorpe University has found that connection. Oglethorpe’s evening degree program will offer an eight-week course exploring the representations of Eva Perón and Che Guevara in literature and film on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:00 until 8:15 p.m. beginning on March 6.

“Many Americans know about Eva Peron from the Broadway musical or the film with Madonna. Many young people today wear t-shirts with Che Guevara’s face but do not know much about him,” says course instructor Dr. Viviana Plotnik, Associate Professor of Spanish. “I wanted to teach this course so students would become aware of not only who these iconic figures were but also how complex and polarizing they are for Latin Americans, and what a strong impact they have had in the last decades of Latin American history, politics and culture.”

The course will explore the impact and legacy of the two legendary figures from Argentina, Eva Perón and Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Students will study the various Evitas and Ches created at different times and places since the 1950s until the present by examining essays, short-stories, plays and films. Students will become aware of historical, social and cultural processes which will widen their knowledge of Latin America. No Spanish is needed for this course; the class will be conducted in English and all reading materials and films are in English.

Dr. Viviana Plotnik grew-up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She moved to the United States in 1982 where she completed her graduate work in Latin American literature. Professor Plotnik taught at the University of Minnesota, New York University and Bowdoin College before coming to Oglethorpe. She has published several articles on the relationship between Latin American literature and postmodernity, neoliberalism and dictatorship in U.S. academic journals. In 2003 she published the book Female Body, Mourning, and Nation: A Study of Eva Peron as Literary Character (Buenos Aires, Argentina: Corregidor Editores).