Lines of geography in Latin American narrative : national territory, national literature

Description

This text 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 19th-century Latin America. Tracing the simultaneous rise of text-writing, map-making, and institution-building, it offers new insight into how nations consolidated 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 statesmen became literary stars while spearheading Latin America's first geographic institutes, which sought to delineate the newly independent states.-- Read more... Abstract: The book digs into lesser-studied bulletins, correspondence, and essays to tell the story of how three statesmen became literary stars while spearheading Latin America's first geographic institutes, which sought to delineate the newly independent states. Read more... Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Heretofore: Delineation (Aarti Smith Madan)....Pages 1-28 Geographical Discourse and Alexander Von Humboldt (Aarti Smith Madan)....Pages 29-76 Sarmiento the Geographer: Unearthing the Literary in Facundo (Aarti Smith Madan)....Pages 77-126 Estanislao Severos Zeballos and the Transatlantic Science of Statecraft (Aarti Smith Madan)....Pages 127-185 Euclides da Cunha’s Literary Map, or Including Os Sertões (Aarti Smith Madan)....Pages 187-247 Hereafter: Off the Grid (Aarti Smith Madan)....Pages 249-259 Back Matter ....Pages 261-291