Spain as Archive: Constructing a Colombian Modernity in the Writings of Soledad Acosta de Samper

摘要

At the turn of the nineteenth century, conservative Creoles subscribed to a Hispanist discourse that promoted the idea of a Hispanic Transatlantic community that shared race, culture and religion. This paper focuses on the work of the Colombian author Soledad Acosta de Samper to examine how this Hispanist discourse did not promote an imitation of subordination to Spanish culture but an instrumentalization of this Hispanic identity for Creole nation-building projects. Acosta de Samper conceived of this identification as a means not only to ‘deindigenize’ Colombia but to counteract the French and British influence that she considered corrupting. However, the reality of Spanish society she faced during her trip to Spain in 1892 would lead her to question her original project. Believing Colombia to be more advanced than Spain, Acosta de Samper depicted the former metropole as unable to reach modernity but rather serving as an archive or museum of Hispanic tradition through which Colombians could create their own concept of modernity. This paper not only furthers the recovery work of the most prominent woman writer in nineteenth century Colombia, but investigates the ambivalent relation of the Spanish American Creoles with their ex colonizer through her writings.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13569325.2012.662479