Articulations of Empire and the Nation: Christopher Columbus in Nineteenth-Century Spain, Italy, the United States and Spanish America
"In chapter one, an analysis of historiographic and literary texts from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is presented to establish what the author calls an ""interpretive tradition"" according to which Columbus is a figure inevitably associated with empire. After a brief review of the Columbian literary tradition in Spain and Italy from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries, chapters two and three focus on Columbian discourse in Spain and Italy, respectively, around the time of 1892 (the quadricentennial of 1492) when nationalists constructed Columbus as both an imperial and a national hero, thus revealing the complicity between nationalist ideology and the ideology of empire. The same is the case in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century (chapter four), despite the fact that Columbus never set foot on North America and despite the fact that nationalism there developed in opposition to empire. Chapter five considers Columbian discourse in Spanish America, where (as in the United States) nationalism also developed in an anti-colonial context, but where discourse about Columbus is highly contradictory. Some attempt to construct Columbus as a national hero, but others reject him, or part of his traditional interpretation, because he represents empire. In many cases, Spanish-American nationalists try to divorce Columbus from his historical association with the Spanish empire and establish him as spiritual leader of the modern nation. The conclusion considers Columbian discourse in the twentieth century and its relation to ""postnationalism."" The author considers poems, novels and essays, including those by: Ciro Bayo, Jose Lamarque de Novoa, Anton Giulio Barrili, James G. Blaine, Justo Sierra, Ruben Dario, and Carlos Fuentes."
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign