Geopolitics, Culture, and the Scientific Imaginary in Latin America

by María del Pilar Blanco (Editor), Joanna Page (Editor)

Overview

Challenging the common view that Latin America has lagged behind Europe and North America in the global history of science, this volume reveals that the region has long been a center for scientific innovation and imagination. It highlights the important relationship between science, politics, and culture in Latin American history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683401483
Publisher:	University Press of Florida
Publication date:	04/17/2020
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.13(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.19(d)

About the Author

María del Pilar Blanco is associate professor of Spanish American literature and fellow and tutor in Spanish at Trinity College, University of Oxford. She is the author of Ghost-Watching American Modernity: Haunting, Landscape, and the Hemispheric Imagination.

Joanna Page is professor of Latin American studies at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of several books, including Decolonizing Science in Latin American Art.

Table of Contents

Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction I. Latin America’s scientific landscapes Introduction María del Pilar Blanco and Joanna Page 1. Bone Tales: Patagonian Monsters and the Paleontological Imagination Gabriela Nouzeilles 2. Nation as Laboratory: Rethinking Science Writing in Mexico’s República Restaurada (1868-1876) María del Pilar Blanco 3. Natural Histories of the Anthropocene: Santiago del Estero, Argentina, in the 1930s Jens Andermann II. Latin America as the site of knowledge production Introduction 4. Empathy, Patients’ Needs and Therapeutic Innovation in the Medical Literature of Early Viceregal Mexico Yarí Pérez Marín 5. Between Potosí and Nuevo Potosí: Mineral Riches and Observations of Nature in the Colonial Andes, ca. 1596-1797 Heidi V. Scott 6. Indigenous Medicine and Nation-Building: Hermilio Valdizán’s Medical Project Edward Chauca III. Science and the modern nation Introduction 7. Postcolonial Social Sciences of Nineteenth-Century Spanish America: Land Surveys, Comparative Political Sociology, and the Malleability of Race Lina del Castillo 8. “Una nueva y gloriosa nación”: Patriotic Lyrics and Scientific Culture in the Forging of Political Emancipation in Río de la Plata Miguel de Asúa 9. Inventions and Discoveries in Letters to Perón: Dialogue and Autonomy in the Popular Technical Imagination in Argentina in the 1940s and 1950s Hernán Comastri IV. Utopian convergences between science and the arts Introduction 10. Modernismo, Spiritualism, and Science in Argentina at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: An Analysis of National Magazines Soledad Quereilhac 11. Doing Poetry with Science: Unthinking Knowledge in Sarduy, Perlongher, and Eielson Julio Prieto 12. The Science of Reading Fiction: New (Post-Darwinian) Metaphors to Live By Joanna Page V. Science, epistemology, and the critique of modernity Introduction 13. Laboratories of Universality: A Genealogy of Solitary Latin American Inventors Carlos Fonseca Suárez 14. The Politics of Relativity: Radical Epistemologies and the Revolutionary Potential of the Scientific Imaginary in José Carlos Mariátegui Brais Outes-León 15. Beyond Empiricism: Rolando García’s Theory of Complex Systems and the Epistemological Consequences of a Non-linear Universe Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra Bibliography Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The most inclusive, informative, and up-to-date volume I have seen regarding science and culture in Latin America. An excellent choice for both the classroom and the individual researcher.”—Jerry Hoeg, coauthor of Reading and Writing the Latin American Landscape “What is the role played by Latin America in the formation of global science? What is the role performed by science in the shaping of the imaginary in Latin America? Many will surely respond the same to both questions: they will say it has been a subsidiary or marginal role, or that they do not know. After reading this book—diverse, interdisciplinary, and highly topical—one can only agree that neither science nor Latin America are what we thought they were.”—Juan Pimentel, author of The Rhinoceros and the Megatherium: An Essay in Natural History

Editorial Reviews

This multidisciplinary, well-researched work is an excellent contribution to the fields of cultural studies and Latin American studies.”—Choice

 

“Wonderful and imaginative. . . . An exciting new addition to the literature.”—New Books Network

 

“The humanities, including language, literature, and history, have increasingly provided valuable insights on the relationships between science, society, and creative work. This book adds significantly to our appreciation of these connections in the Latin American context, including multiple countries and time periods.”—Journal of Latin American Geography

 

“Excels above all in its capacity to inspire further work on the raised issues. . . . The book does not shy away from the challenge of digging deeper and redeeming forgotten or unknown figures and episodes in the history of Latin American science and culture, which is the reason why it is highly recommended for a broad readership.”—Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society

From the Publisher