Beyond Imagined Communities: Reading and Writing the Nation in Nineteenth-Century Latin America

by Sara Castro-Klarén, John Charles Chasteen

Overview

How did the nationalisms of Latin America's many countries—elaborated in everything from history and fiction to cookery—arise from their common backgrounds in the Spanish and Portuguese empires and their similar populations of mixed European, native, and African origins? Beyond Imagined Communities: Reading and Writing the Nation in Nineteenth-Century Latin America, discards one answer and provides a rich collection of others.

These essays began as a critique of the argument by Benedict Anderson's highly influential book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Anderson traces Latin American nationalisms to local circulation of colonial newspapers and tours of duty of colonial administrators, but this book shows the limited validity of these arguments.

Instead, Beyond Imagined Communities shows how more diverse cultural influences shaped Latin American nationalisms. Four historians examine social situations: François-Xavier Guerra studies various forms of political communication; Tulio Halperín Donghi, political parties; Sarah C. Chambers, the feminine world of salons; and Andrew Kirkendall, the institutions of higher education that trained the new administrators. Next, four critics examine production of cultural objects: Fernando Unzueta investigates novels; Sara Castro-Klarén, archeology and folklore; Gustavo Verdesio, suppression of unwanted archeological evidence; and Beatriz González Stephan, national literary histories and international expositions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801878534
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	01/27/2004
Series:	Woodrow Wilson Center Press Series
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.73(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sara Castro-Klarén is professor of Latin American Culture and Literature at Johns Hopkins University.

John Charles Chasteen is professor of history at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Table of Contents

	Introduction: Beyond Imagined Communities	ix
	The Historians
1.	Forms of Communication, Political Spaces, and Cultural Identities in the Creation of Spanish American Nations	3
2.	Argentine Counterpoint: Rise of the Nation, Rise of the State	33
3.	Letters and Salons: Women Reading and Writing the Nation	54
4.	Student Culture and Nation-State Formation	84
	The Critics
5.	Scenes of Reading: Imagining Nations/Romancing History in Spanish America	115
6.	The Nation in Ruins: Archaeology and the Rise of the Nation	161
7.	An Amnesic Nation: The Erasure of Indigenous Pasts by Uruguayan Expert Knowledges	196
8.	Showcases of Consumption: Historical Panoramas and Universal Expositions	225
	Contributors	239
	Index	243

What People are Saying About This

Mario J. Valdés

Every Latin Americanist will welcome the insight provided by this book into Latin America's complex heterogeneity.

From the Publisher

Every Latin Americanist will welcome the insight provided by this book into Latin America's complex heterogeneity.
—Mario J. Valdés, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Toronto

Mario J. Valdés

Every Latin Americanist will welcome the insight provided by this book into Latin America's complex heterogeneity.

Editorial Reviews

The anthology gives scholars intelligently argued, well-supported, and novel approaches in the search for the origins and spread of nationalism.
—Histoire Sociale - Social History

This collection of essays is essential reading for all who work on questions of 'reading' and 'writing' the nation in Latin America.
—William G. Acree, Jr., Hispanofila

An excellent volume for historians and literary scholars . . . all those interested in the process leading to the construction of nations in Latin America, as well as the multitudes of those who have been captivated by Anderson's groundbreaking work, will find the volume most rewarding.
—May E. Bletz, Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies

From the Publisher

This collection of essays is essential reading for all who work on questions of 'reading' and 'writing' the nation in Latin America.

— William G. Acree, Jr.

Hispanofila

An excellent volume for historians and literary scholars... all those interested in the process leading to the construction of nations in Latin America, as well as the multitudes of those who have been captivated by Anderson's groundbreaking work, will find the volume most rewarding.

— May E. Bletz

Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies

An excellent volume for historians and literary scholars... all those interested in the process leading to the construction of nations in Latin America, as well as the multitudes of those who have been captivated by Anderson's groundbreaking work, will find the volume most rewarding.

Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies - May E. Bletz

This collection of essays is essential reading for all who work on questions of 'reading' and 'writing' the nation in Latin America.

Hispanofila - William G. Acree

The anthology gives scholars intelligently argued, well-supported, and novel approaches in the search for the origins and spread of nationalism.

Histoire Sociale - Social History