Galapagos / Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures (ePub)

Este libro intenta mostrar la representación textual de
las islas Galápagos desde su descubrimiento hasta nuestros días. El argumento
principal sugiere que la descripción de este espacio crucial para la modernidad,
dada la retórica de los escritores de viajes y ficción, transforma el área
insular para concebir formas alternativas del proyecto de construcción nacional
en América Latina. Como resultado de las empresas coloniales, excursiones
científicas, crónicas periodísticas o expediciones, la escritura de viaje de
las Galápagos condiciona la formación del estado y su imaginario nacional. Esto
ocurre por el capital simbólico que posee archipiélago y por el deseo de los
intelectuales latinoamericanos de pertenecer a un territorio cosmopolita.

This book,
written in Spanish, takes a literary and cultural studies model to explain the
textual representation of the Galápagos Islands since their discovery until
present day. The main argument suggests that the depiction of this crucial
space for modernity in Western thought, given the rhetoric of travel and
fiction writers, transforms the insular area with the intention of conceiving
disparate forms of political displacement. Specifically, these depictions show several
conflicts that arose from the seeking of identity in Ecuador during the
nation-building project that took place at the time. As a result of colonial enterprises
(scientific excursions, exile, tourism, journalistic pieces, expeditions, etc.), travel writings of the Galápagos condition the formation of the state and its
national imagery because of the extreme symbolic capital of the archipelago and
the desire of Latin American intellectuals to belong to a cosmopolitan
territory.