This book examines the modes of representation of the East in Argentinean literature since the country’s independence, in works by canonical authors such as Esteban Echeverría, Juan B. Alberdi, Domingo F. Sarmiento, Lucio V. Mansilla, Pastor S. Obligado, Eduardo F. Wilde, Leopoldo Lugones, and Roberto Arlt. The East, which has always fascinated intellectuals and artists from the Americas, inspired the creation of imaginary elements for both aesthetic and political purposes, from the depiction of purportedly despotic rulers to a genuine admiration for Eastern history and millennial cultures. These writers appropriated the East either through their travels or by reading chronicles, integrating along the way images that would end up being universalized by the Argentinean dichotomy between civilization and barbarism, all the while assigning the negative stereotypes of the exotic East to the Pampa region. With time, the exoticism of the Eastern world would shed its geopolitical meaningand was ultimately integrated into the national literature, thus adding new elements into the Argentinean imaginary.
Table of Content
1 Introduction.- 2 European Archetypes and the Debate about the Eastern Question.-
Part I: The East in the Pampa.- 3 The Romantic import of Esteban Echeverría and Juan B. Alberdi.- 4 : The Ideological Oriental Translation of Domingo F. Sarmiento.-
Part II: Eastern Stamps of Cosmopolites, Tourists and Positivists.- 5 The Worldly Splendor of Lucio V. Mansilla.- 6 The Measured Enlightenment of Pastor S. Obligado.- 7 The Hygienist Modernity of Eduardo F. Wilde.- Part III: Mirrors of the East.- 8 Arabesques and
Chinerías: the Imaginary of Leopoldo Lugones.- 9 The Aestheticizing Traditionalism of Jorge Max Rohde.- 10 Roberto Arlt’s Moorish and African Fiction.- 11 General Conclusion.
About the author
Axel Gasquet is Professor of Latin American Studies at the University Clermont Auvergne, France, and principal researcher at IHRIM of French National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS). He has published twelve monographs, including
La cultura extraterritorial argentina (2020) and
El llamado de Oriente (2015), coedited eleven essay collections and edited five critical editions, including
Cultural and Literary Dialogues between Asia and Latin America (2020) and José Rizal’s
Noli me tangere (2019).
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