Lines of Geography in Latin American Narrative: National Territory, National Literature

ISBN-13: 9783319551395 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 291 str.

Aarti Smith Madan

Opis

This book looks to the writings of prolific statesmen like D.F. Sarmiento, Estanislao Zeballos, and Euclides da Cunha to unearth the literary and political roots of the discipline of geography in nineteenth-century Latin America. Tracing the simultaneous rise of text-writing, map-making, and institution-building, it offers new insight into how nations consolidate their territories. Beginning with the titanic figures of Strabo and Humboldt, it rereads foundational works like Facundo and Os sertoes as examples of a recognizably geographical discourse. The book digs into lesser-studied bulletins, correspondence, and essays to tell the story of how three writer-statesmen gained literary fame while spearheading Latin America's first geographic institutes, which coalesced around the critical task of delineating newly independent states. Through a fresh pairing of literary analysis and institutional history, it reveals that words and maps--literature and geography--marched in lockstep to shape national territories, identities, and narratives.

Spis treści

1. Heretofore: Delineation.- 2. Geographical Discourse and Alexander von Humboldt .- 3. Sarmiento the Geographer: Unearthing the Literary in Facundo.- 4. Estanislao Zeballos and the Transatlantic Science of Statecraft.- 5. Euclides da Cunha’s Literary Map, or Including Os Sertões.- 6. Hereafter: Off the Grid.- Bibliography.- Index.

O autorze

Aarti Smith Madan is Associate Professor of Spanish and International Studies in the Department of Humanities and Arts at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA, where she also serves as Director of the Buenos Aires Project Center. She was raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee and lives in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.