Pirate novels : fictions of nation-building in Spanish America / Nina Gerassi-Navarro.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gerassi-Navarro, Nina.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spanish American fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

Spanish American fiction.

Historical fiction, Spanish American--History and criticism.

Historical fiction, Spanish American.

Pirates in literature.

Nationalism and literature--Latin America.

Nationalism and literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (263 p.)

Place of Publication:

Durham [N.C.] : Duke University Press, 1999.

Summary:

In Pirate Novels Nina Gerassi-Navarro examines an overlooked genre to reveal how history and fiction blend to address important isuses of nation building in nineteenth-century Spanish America. In the figure of the pirate, bold and heroic to some, cruel and criminal to others, she reveals an almost ideal character that came to embody the spirit of emerging nationhood and the violence associated with the struggle to attain it. Beginning with an overview of the history of piracy, Gerassi-Navarro traces the historical icon of the pirate through colonial-era chronicles before exploring a group of nineteenth-century Mexican, Colombian, and Argentine novels. She argues that the authors of these novels, in their reconstructions of the past, were less interested in accurate representations than in using their narratives to discuss the future of their own countries. In reading these pirate narratives as metaphors for the process of nation building in Spanish America, Gerassi-Navarro exposes the conflicting strains of a complex culture attempting to shape that future. She shows how these pirate stories reflect the on-going debates that marked the consolidation of nationhood, as well as the extent to which the narratives of national identity in Spanish America are structured in relation to European cultures, and the ways in which questions of race and gender were addressed.

Contents:

Piracy in Spanish America: a history

The sea monsters of the colonial era

Defining national identities through piracy

Nation building and the historical novel

The force of melodrama.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [221]-235) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780822323938

0822323931

9780822397618

0822397617

OCLC:

891395467