Beyond Imagined Communities: Reading And Writing The Nation In Nineteenth-century Latin America (woodrow Wilson Center Press)

Benedict Anderson's memorable formula, "imagined communities," became a central reference point in both historical and literary studies of Latin America during the 1990s.

How did the nationalisms of Latin America's many countries — elaborated in everything from history and fiction to cookery — arise from their common backgrounds in the Spanish and Portuguese empires and their similar populations of mixed European, native, and African origins? Beyond Imagined Communities: Reading and Writing the Nation in Nineteenth-Century Latin America, discards one answer and provides a rich collection of others.

These essays began as a critique of the argument by Benedict Anderson's highly influential book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Anderson traces Latin American nationalisms to local circulation of colonial newspapers and tours of duty of colonial administrators, but this book shows the limited validity of these arguments.

Instead, Beyond Imagined Communities shows how more diverse cultural influences shaped Latin American nationalisms. Four historians examine social situations: François-Xavier Guerra studies various forms of political communication; Tulio Halperín Donghi, political parties; Sarah C. Chambers, the feminine world of salons; and Andrew Kirkendall, the institutions of higher education that trained the new administrators. Next, four critics examine production of cultural objects: Fernando Unzueta investigates novels; Sara Castro-Klarén, archeology and folklore; Gustavo Verdesio, suppression of unwanted archeological evidence; and Beatriz González Stephan, national literary histories and international expositions.

Introduction : beyond imagined communities / John Charles Chasteen. The historians. Forms of communication, political spaces, and cultural identities in the creation of Spanish American nations / François-Xavier Guerra Argentine counterpoint : rise of the nation, rise of the state / Tulio Halperín-Donghi Letters and salons : women reading and writing the nation / Sarah C. Chambers Student culture and nation-state formation / Andrew Kirkendall. The Critics. Scenes of reading : imagining nations/romancing history in Spanish America / Fernando Unzueta The nation in ruins : archaeology and the rise of the nation / Sara Castro-Klarén An amnesic nation : the erasure of indigenous pasts by Uruguayan expert knowledges / Gustavo Verdesio Showcases of consumption : historical panoramas and universal expositions / Beatriz Gonzalez-Stephán. Next, four critics examine production of cultural objects: Fernando Unzueta investigates novels; Sara Castro-Klaren, archeology and folklore; Gustavo Verdesio, suppression of unwanted archeological evidence; and Beatriz Gonzalez Stephan, national literary histories and international expositions.