The Inverted Conquest

Alejandro Mejias-Lopez

Description

Modernismo (1880s-1920s) is considered one of the most groundbreaking literary movements in Hispanic history, as it transformed literature in Spanish to an extent not seen since the Renaissance. As Alejandro Mejias-Lopez demonstrates, however, modernismo was also groundbreaking in another, more radical way: it was the first time a postcolonial literature took over the literary field of the former European metropolis.

Expanding Bourdieu's concepts of cultural field and symbolic capital beyond national boundaries, The Inverted Conquest shows how modernismo originated in Latin America and traveled to Spain, where it provoked a complete renovation of Spanish letters and contributed to a national identity crisis. In the process, described by Latin American writers as a reversal of colonial relations, modernismo wrested literary and cultural authority away from Spain, moving the cultural center of the Hispanic world to the Americas.

Mejias-Lopez further reveals how Spanish American modernistas confronted the racial supremacist claims and homogenizing force of an Anglo-American modernity that defined the Hispanic as un-modern. Constructing a new Hispanic genealogy, modernistas wrote Spain as the birthplace of modernity and themselves as the true bearers of the modern spirit, moved by the pursuit of knowledge, cosmopolitanism, and cultural miscegenation, rather than technology, consumption, and scientific theories of racial purity.

Bound by the intrinsic limits of neocolonial and postcolonial theories, scholarship has been unwilling or unable to explore modernismo's profound implications for our understanding of Western modernities.

Sujets

• Latin American Studies
• Literary Criticism
• Spanish
• Portuguese
• European
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 09 février 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826516794
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

  

  Conquet

he Myt of Modernity and te Transatlantic Onset of Modernism

Alejandro Mejías-López

Vanderbil Universiy Press 

©  by Vanderbilt University Press Nasville, Tennessee  All rigts reserved First Edition 

his book is printed on acid-free paper made from % post-consumer recycled content. Manufactured in te United States of America

Publication of tis book as been supported by a generous subsidy from te Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and United States Universities.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mejías-López, Alejandro. he inverted conquest : te myt of modernity and te transatlantic onset of modernism / Alejandro Mejías-López. p. cm. Includes bibliograpical references and index.  ---- (clot : alk. paper) . Spanis American literature—t century— History and criticism. . Spanis American literature—t century—History and criticism. . Modernism (Literature)—Latin America. . Modernism (Literature)—Spain. . Spanis literature—Latin American influences. I. Title. .  .’—dc 

To Missy and Lyra. To my mother. To my father, in memoriam.

   

Contents

Acknowledgmens ix Inroducion  he Mys of European Moderniy

he Transalanic Lierary Field and e Rise of Modernismo  he Conques of e Meropolian Lierary Field  Rewriing Moderniy, Auoring Spain  Noes  Works Cied  Index 



Acknowledgments

ere are many wose insig, encouragemen, and mae- T rial elp ave made e wriing of is book possible. I am graeful o my colleagues and graduae sudens a e Universiy of Nor Carolina, Indiana Universiy, and elsewere for eir always simulaing conversaion, eir inellecual generosiy, and eir friendsip. I am paricularly ankful o Andrew Ander- son, Debora Con, Saniago Colás, Suar Day, Parick Dove, Cedomil Goic, Carl Good, Emily Maguire, Jon Nieo-Pillips, Gabriela Nouzeilles, Edurne Porela, Andrew Reynolds, María Salgado, and Seven Wagscal. I would like o ank Micael Ames, direcor of Vanderbil Universiy Press, for is unwaver- ing suppor of is book and is insig, diligence, and paience rougou e process. I as been a pleasure working wi im and everyone a e press, especially is managing edior, Jessie Hunnicu. I would also like o ank e anonymous readers of e manuscrip for eir enusiasm and eir exremely elpful commens.  I would like o ank eArizona Journal of Hispanic Cul- tural Studies for permission o reprin porions of Caper , wic firs appeared in prin, wi slig variaions, as par of my aricle “Modernismo’s Invered Conques and e Ruins of Imperial Nosalgia: Reinking e Hispanic Alanic in Con- emporary Criical Discourse,”AJHCS () –.  I am mos deeply graeful o my parner, Melissa Dinverno. Her brainpower and inellecual onesy are difficul o mac and ave elped keep me on my oes and no ake ings for graned. Her reading of many drafs and er many insigful commens ave been insrumenal in making is a beer book. For er love, emoional suppor, and generosiy wi er ime, I canno ank er enoug. Wiou er, is book would sim- ply no ave been wrien. Finally, I wan o ank our daug-

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