Constructs of culture : Argentina's struggle with its identity / Mark William Schuhl.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Microformat

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Schuhl, Mark William.

Contributor:

Regueiro, José M., advisor.

University of Pennsylvania.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Penn dissertations--Romance languages.

Romance languages--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--Romance languages.

Romance languages--Penn dissertations.

Physical Description:

vii, 313 pages ; 29 cm

Production:

2000.

Summary:

The dissertation deals with the difficulties of self-description affecting the Argentine Republic from the moment of its independence from Spanish rule in 1810 to the late twentieth century. Concentrating on the cultural and sociological essays of Juan Bautista Alberdi, Esteban Echeverria, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento; Bartolome Mitre, Eduardo Wilde, Jose Ingenieros, Manuel Ugarte; Ricardo Rojas, Leopoldo Lugones, Jorge Luis Borges; Ezequiel Martinez Estrada, Eduardo Mallea, Jose Ingenieros; Victor Massuh, Julio Mafud, and Ernesto Sabato; the dissertation provides a detailed analysis of the various ideological tenets followed by these authors in their efforts to influence or define the Argentine collective existence. Through consideration of the intellectual environments in which these essayists wrote, the dissertation establishes the vinculum of author to time, thereby refuting attempts at universality by individual essayists. It thereafter urges that these authors' works be considered in their totality as an approximation at a definition of Argentine culture, arguing that comprehensibility is accessible only through the aggregation of all Argentine experiences in all times. Post-colonial studies offer the dissertation a theoretical basis for the analysis of immigration, (dis)unity within the Republic, as well as the roles of continuity and rupture in the emergence of Argentina as a national group with its struggles to recognize its location in relation to the various Western European and indigenous American cultures. The dissertation concludes that many attempts at national definition are examples of cultural creationism, supported by mythicizing historical persons, events, and lifestyles. Without attempting to define Argentine culture, the dissertation positions it within a marginal global community opposite the central metropolises.

Notes:

Supervisor: Jose M. Regueiro.

Thesis (Ph.D. in Romance Languages) -- University of Pennsylvania, 2000.

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

University Microfilms order no.: 99-76473.

OCLC:

244972234