Nature Fantasies : Decolonization and Biopolitics in Latin America
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| Title: | Nature Fantasies : Decolonization and Biopolitics in Latin America |
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| Description: | In this original study, Gabriel Horowitz examines the work of select nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin American writers through the lens of contemporary theoretical debates about nature, postcoloniality, and national identity. In the work of José Martí, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Jorge Luis Borges, Augusto Roa Bastos, Cesar Aira, and others, he traces historical constructions of nature in regional intellectual traditions and texts as they inform political culture on the broader global stage. By investigating national literary discourses from Cuba, Argentina, and Paraguay, he identifies a common narrative thread that imagines the utopian wilderness of the New World as a symbolic site of independence from Spain. In these texts, Horowitz argues, an expressed desire to return to the nation's foundational nature contributed to a movement away from political and social engagement and toward a “biopolitical state,” in which nature, traditionally seen as pre-political, conversely becomes its center. |
| Authors: | Gabriel Horowitz |
| Resource Type: | eBook. |
| Subjects: | Decolonization in literature, Biopolitics in literature, National characteristics, Latin American, in liter, Spanish American literature--19th century--History and criticism, Spanish American literature--20th century--History and criticism, Nature in literature |
| Categories: | LITERARY CRITICISM / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Caribbean & Latin American, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / Nature, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Cultural & Ethnic Studies / Caribbean & Latin American Studies |
| Database: | eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) |
| Abstract: | In this original study, Gabriel Horowitz examines the work of select nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin American writers through the lens of contemporary theoretical debates about nature, postcoloniality, and national identity. In the work of José Martí, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Jorge Luis Borges, Augusto Roa Bastos, Cesar Aira, and others, he traces historical constructions of nature in regional intellectual traditions and texts as they inform political culture on the broader global stage. By investigating national literary discourses from Cuba, Argentina, and Paraguay, he identifies a common narrative thread that imagines the utopian wilderness of the New World as a symbolic site of independence from Spain. In these texts, Horowitz argues, an expressed desire to return to the nation's foundational nature contributed to a movement away from political and social engagement and toward a “biopolitical state,” in which nature, traditionally seen as pre-political, conversely becomes its center. |
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| ISBN: | 9781684484997 9781684485000 9781684485024 9781684485017 |
