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Sto caricando le informazioni... The lettered city (1996)di Angel Rama
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Posthumously published to wide acclaim, The Lettered City is a vitally important work by one of Latin America's most highly respected theorists. Angel Rama's groundbreaking study--presented here in its first English translation--provides an overview of the power of written discourse in the historical formation of Latin American societies, and highlights the central role of cities in deploying and reproducing that power. To impose order on a vast New World empire, the Iberian monarchs created carefully planned cities where institutional and legal powers were administered through a specialized cadre of elite men called letrados; it is the urban nexus of lettered culture and state power that Rama calls "the lettered city." Starting with the colonial period, Rama undertakes a historical analysis of the hegemonic influences of the written word. He explores the place of writing and urbanization in the imperial designs of the Iberian colonialists and views the city both as a rational order of signs representative of Enlightenment progress and as the site where the Old World is transformed--according to detailed written instructions--in the New. His analysis continues by recounting the social and political challenges faced by the letrados as their roles in society widened to include those of journalist, fiction writer, essayist, and political leader, and how those roles changed through the independence movements of the nineteenth century. The coming of the twentieth century, and especially the gradual emergence of a mass reading public, brought further challenges. Through a discussion of the currents and countercurrents in turn-of-the-century literary life, Rama shows how the city of letters was finally "revolutionized." Already crucial in setting the terms for debate concerning the complex relationships among intellectuals, national formations, and the state, this elegantly written and translated work will be read by Latin American scholars in a wide range of disciplines, and by students and scholars in the fields of anthropology, cultural geography, and postcolonial studies. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)980History and Geography South America History of South AmericaClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
Sei tu?Diventa un autore di LibraryThing. Duke University Press2 edizioni di questo libro sono state pubblicate da Duke University Press. Edizioni: 0822317664, 0822317575 |
Beginning with a description of American cities as reasoned applications of early modern European ideas concerning urban planning and the ordered distribution of space, Rama discusses the rise of a lettered bureaucracy (the lettered city that gives the book its title) essential to the maintenance of an empire half a world away from its European center. He then traces this group’s development in relation to the real city. The lettered city, an absolute necessity in the administration of colonial empires centered half a world away from their European centers, was compelled to join forces with the creole elites of the newly independent nations of Latin America. It was no longer a sort of secular priesthood charged with transmitting the Word of the distant State, and its members were forced to adapt and integrate themselves into the process of creating national identities and creating civic consciousness through education and cultural output. Later, as cities modernized and power was consolidated in the hands of political parties, the lettered class continued to evolve and maintain its influence by using writing as a way to continually represent the city, incorporating marginalized and popular forms into works that show urban life as a conjunction of a nostalgic past and a rapidly changing present. As its professional role shifted from bureaucratic to journalistic posts, this lettered elite also produced works that recorded nationalist and regional discourses on progress and education and provided written foundations for the political power structure of the real city.
To this reader, the book’s strength lies in its wide scope. Rama’s history of readers and writers inscribes their literary and professional production in the greater history of the region and its cities. As he tells the story of the possessors of the written word, Rama charts the changing role of writing in society, telling the history of the social class that held the power of the pen. I believe this type of big, broad, compelling narrative would appeal to all those interested in Latin America and its political, social and literary history. ( )