Sobre el autor y la obra
-
Rama
o
Uruguay, 1926-1983
o
Part
of “Generation of ’45” or “Critical Generation”
o
Worked
in various universities
-
This
work was published posthumously (in 1984) and unfinished but was very important
-
Influenced
by modernism
Comps Example
Question
The development of Spanish American identity and issues of
race, class, and gender in numerous authors, from modernismo to the present (although they occur earlier as well). Authors:
Agustini, Arguedas, Argueta, Storni, Burgos, Castellanos, Cardenal, Ferré,
Berman, Álvarez, Williams, Puig, Barba Jacob, Sarduy, Menchú, Alzandúa, Paz,
Fernández Retamar, Galeano, Rama, etc. Some suggested readings: Foster and
Altamiranda, Cornejo Polar, Meyer, Castillo, Stabb, Martin, Kaminsky, Beverly
and others under testimonio.
Some random
ideas (from random PDF)
-
Work
covers cultural history of L.Am. from Tenochtitlán in 1521-mid 20th
c. Mexico. Linked with Foucault’s theories (which are?____)
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Singular problem: “clase” letrada
latinoamericana – su constitución, consolodación, tranformaciones, etc.
-
Link
between Latin American essays and cultural studies (also: Benedict Anderson’s Imagined
Communities and Said’s Orientalism)
-
This
work names the group of institutions that make up la ciudad letrada…colonial
institutions (police, judicial system, civil registry), artistic, educational,
financial and commercial corporations, “las profesiones liberales” (medicine,
notary)…etc.
-
People
gain a differentiated social identity based on their membership to the
organizations
-
Additionally,
these distinctions self-perpetuate by prácticas discursivas (laws, petitions,
anthologies, etc.)
-
These things are like performances
“cuyo objetivo es la reproducción y perpetuación del orden letrado como centro
del orden social.”
-
Strong
link between LETRA y PODER
-
Ciudades colonials como instancias
fundamentales en la empresa de construcción y expansión del imperio español.
-
Center of city: instancias de poder y
prestigio (catedral, palacio virreinal, el banco, la aristocracia local…)
-
Cada “anillo” exterior = un paso abajo
en la jerarquía
-
When
wars of independence were over, this further centered power in these cities
(since power was no longer shared with Spain.)
-
Alfebetización masiva permite el acceso
de nuevos sectores a la tecnología de la letra (takes previous oral-only
cultures out of less-privileged position
Wikipedia’s notes:
De su
último libro, editado póstumamente, la crítica argentina Beatriz Colombi
argumenta que
La
ciudad letrada aparece como un libro precursor de las tendencias
críticas que ocuparán a los estudios latinoamericanos en los años siguientes,
entre otros, los estudios culturales y postcoloniales, espaciales y
urbanísticos, la cultura popular, la dupla oralidad y escritura, los nuevos estudios
sobre la colonia, y, particularmente, la historia de los intelectuales.
En el
texto, Rama compara la "ciudad real que sólo existe en la historia"
con la llamada "ciudad letrada [que] quiere ser fija e intemporal como los
signos." El libro traza la historia de la oposición entre estas dos
ciudades desde la época colonial hasta el siglo XX. Es también, entonces, un
ensayo sobre el poder de la letra escrita, y de los intelectuales que la
manejaban (los llamados "letrados") en América Latina. En palabras de
la crítica Adela Pineda Franco, "Rama resalta la función ordenadora y homogeneizante
de la escritura en el proceso de formación social y político de Latinoamérica
al plantear el papel del intelectual como funcionario y servidor del poder
central (burocrático)."
Themes/ideas
-
Importance
of education, kind of way of proving civilization (rather than being labeled
barbaric)
-
Development of Latin America
-
Latin American identity
-
Elitism
-
Influence of modernism
General
Notes About Content
Prologue
-
specialization
of critics and professors leads to a fragmented reading of Latin American
culture .
-
Rama considers L.Am una totalidad.
I. La ciudad ordenada
-
Summary:
This chapter talks about how the written work and drawings were mixed with
utopian ways of thinking on the virgin soil of Latin
America. The cities of Europe
could not have utopian re-modeling applied to them because of their
well-established ways. However, the administrators and architects of the “New World” could run wild with that. So, the letrados used these utopian models
(which were predicated on the idea that mankind could be made perfect through
the application of reason) to build colonial cities. They were often geometric,
although circles were sometimes used. These cities were contrasted with the
“savage” rural places, even though (because the cities sprang up so quickly
during the Conquista) those rural areas often had more well-established systems
and methods of doing things.
-
General
Notes:
o
Desde la remodelación de Tenochtitlan
desde “Brasilia” de 1960, L.Am cities have been “un parto de la inteligencia”
o The “founders” even knew they
were stepping away from the organic Medieval city into a new
deistribution of spaceà
new lifestyle
o
Capitalismo expansivo y ecuménico+
misioneísmo medieval, applied the principle of tabula rasa
o Built new cities based on
“clarificación, racionalización, y sistematización”, ideal models conceived by
intelligensia.
o Key term in the new system is
orden, developed by the Chuch, the Army and the Administration
o They really ended up building
baroque cities that situated power in the central point y distribuía a su
alrededor, en sucesivos círculos concéntricos, los diversos estratos socials.
o Also, to claim land, you
needed a script (signaling the power of the written word; palabra
hablada=insegura y precaria).
o
Antes de ser una realidad de calles,
casas, y plaza, las que sólo pueden existir y aún así gradualmente…las ciudades
emergían ya completas por un parto de la inteligencia en las normas que las
teorizaban, en los planos y las diseñaban idealmente…etc.
o
una voluntad que desdeñaba las
constricciones objetivas de la realidad y asumía un puesto superior y
autolegitimado
o
el ideal fijado desde los orígenes es
el de ser urabanos, explotando sin piedad a la masa esclava para una rápida
obtención de riquezas
o
Sarmiento in 1845 will continue to
speak of cities as “focos civilizadores, oponiéndolas a los campos donde veía
engendrada la barbarie.”
o
First, the goal in L.Am was
“evangelizar”, second “educar”, both signifying el mismo esfuerzo de
transculturación a partir de la lección europea (p. 27)
o everyone knew that Sevilla,
Lisboa and Madrid were more important than L.Am cities, but they DIDN’T know
that Geneva and Amsterdam were more important than S, Lis, Mad.
o à Thus, L.Am is the periphery
of the periphery.
II. La ciudad letrada
-
Summary:
This section talks about how the written word was used as a tool of domination
by the letrados. Because so few
people could read and write, it was possible to convert the written word into
something mythical. The city was also set up as the hub of letters, the place
of learning that was always contrasted with the savage outside rural areas
(civilización/barbarie). The written word was valued above the spoken word
(which we definitely see in this day and age). Universities were established
and focused on much more than public education because it facilitated the
exclusivity of the letrado group,
rather than enlarging it. Writers abounded, but they only wrote to one another,
and so they were stilted rather than innovative. Also, bureaucracy became entrenched
as part of the letrado group.
-
General
Notes:
o In order to maintain order in
the new world, there needed to be a group in power equivalent to una clase
sacerdotal.
o 1572-Jesuits arrive in New
Worl. 1767: expulsados por Carlos III (because they were interested in
education of indios rather than just evangelization, I think)
o
La ciudad letrada is the city within a
city: su acción se cumplió en el prioritario orden de los signos, which has an
implicit, priestly quality. {made up of: religious, administrators, educators,
profesionales, writers, etc}
o What contributed to the
strength of the ciudad letrada? 1. The demands of a vast colonial
administration 2. The demands of evangelization (transculturation) of the
multitudinous indigenous pop.
o
La época barroca es la primera de la
historia europea que debe atender a la ideologización de muchedumbres.
o Mentions this baroque world
practically still exists in L.Am today.
o
Another has said: la industria mexicana
por excelencia es la burocracia
o Why was there such supremacy
of the ciudad letrada?
§ 1. Made up of a restricted,
drastically urban group.
§
2. Able to handle the instrumentos de
comunicación social y mediante ellos desarrolló
la idealogización del poder que se destinaba al público
§ 3. The exclusivity of
alfebetización made these guys really important
§ Even streets in the cities
were named after important dates, events, people (This is highlighted as a
difference between the ciudad real vs. ciudad letrada)
III) La ciudad escrituraria
-
Summary:
This chapter talks about the standardization of Spanish grammar during the
colonial years. The peninsular way of speaking was privileged over the way that
the working-class people began to speak Spanish. There was an abundance of
letters that were sent during this time period: not only was it necessary, to
try and ensure that a letter would arrive, it also gave an authority. Through
controlling what was “proper” and what was not, the letrados could cast themselves as being in the right light, the
better light, than those who spoke with other accents. However, with graffiti
as the example, writing can exist outside of the lettered establishment (and
often criticizes it). Lizardi (Periquillo
sarniento) is given as an example of one who stepped outside of the
lettered establishment by writing in Spanish instead of Latin. However, the
lettered establishment lives on because of its ability to adapt to different
circumstances.
-
General Notes:
o
Por encima de todo, la ciudad letrada
inspiró la distanceia entre la letra rígida y la fluida palabra hablada, que
hizo de la ciudad letrada una ciudad escrituraria
o Until mid-18th c.,
prohibited for lay people to read the Bible
o
Escribanos: oscura
preeminencia-disponían de la autoridad que trasmitía la legitimidad de la
propiedad
o
Also, power tied closely to castellano
+ metalanguage with localism (los dos códigos lexicales postulan la otredad.)
o Even medical doctors were
more versed in rhetoric than science (huge difference of registers between
formal and informal language)
o These two registers divided
the city into two rings: el anillo urbano donde se distribuía la plebe formada
de criollos, mulattos, mestizos, etc. (also used indigenous or African
languages)
o L.Am. Spanish had to become
baroque to explain never-before-seen things with adjectives, etc (añorando la
lectura eurocentrista como la verdadera y consagratoria)
o
Los graffiti atestiguan autores
marginados de las vías letradas
o When the push for liberty
came about, there was a concurrent push for education.
o
Also, push for correct spelling (“para
salvar el abismo que percibían entre la pronunciación Americana [ciudad real] y
las grafías que habían conservado los letrados.)
o
Educación socialà doble derecho: a la propiedad y a las letras
IV) La ciudad modernizada
-
Summary:
In order to combat the lettered establishment, the nation-builders of the 19th
century sought to increase access to education and increase literacy. Intellectuals
in the city gained prestige. Myths created in the countryside were spread in
the cities as people migrated to them. The figures of messiah and rebel became
very popular and revered. Writing could be used to describe cultures that had
previously been centered on oral traditions, but only as those cultures faded
into extinction (Martín Fierro for
example). Costumbrista and realista writing spread in attempts to
document all aspects of culture. National literatures and language academies
were created to provide written examples of nationality. First oral traditions
and then, as cities were modernized in the early 20th century, urban
histories were used as signs that legitimated what was currently being done by
the lettered establishment. So, in order to document what things were like
before the onset of modernity, people wrote books like Tradiciones peruanas by Ricardo Palma. However, this simply retained
a particular view of the past, one which the lettered establishment wove into
the national memory.
-
General
Notes:
o Modernization that started
around 1870 was the second test of the ciudad letrada
o
Gazettes + magazines “hicieron fuego
sobre los ‘doctores’”, un sector recientemente incorporado a la letra
desafiaba el poder.
o Already, there was an idea
about the lettered class vs. the others
o
La manera de combatir a la ciudad
letrada y disminuir sus abusivos privilegios consistió en reconocer
palmariamente el imperio de la letra, introduciendo en ella a nuevos grupos
sociales
o Parents wanted their children
to get an education to access the higher society (m’hijo el dotor…)
o
Societal mythsà el rebelde y el santo, figuras románticas que desafiaban el orden injusto
de la sociedad
o
Unlike the individualism + power of
self-made man in North America, in L.Am, there is an enorme peso de las
instituciones que configuran el poder + escasísima capacidad de los individuos
para enfrentarlas y vencerlas.
o (intead, in L.Am., you have
big groups, e.g. students, working together for change)
o
Modernization
in L.Am accompanied by creation of Academias de la Lengua ~1870. “Su aparición fue la respuesta de la ciudad letrada a la subversión que se
estaba produciendo en la lengua por la democratización en curso…”
o La letra urbana (late 19th
c.) arrived just in time to rescue oral traditions from what would have been
their disappearance.
o Literature as a concept began
to take shape, legitimized by the nationalist feeling it was capable of
generating.
o
Ciudad real= principal y constante
opositor de la ciudad letrada
o
El periodo modernizado, bajo su máscara
liberal, se apoyó en un intensificado sistema represivo
o Cities were constantly
changing shape… leads to a continuous feeling of estrangement
o Also, in “período
modernizado”, superproduction of libros that tell of how the city was before
the mutation (e.g. Tradiciones Peruanas)
V) La polis se politiza…
-
Summary:
During the 20th century, in spite of the high-spirited centenary
celebrations between 1910 and 1922, the fragility of Latin
America’s place in the modern economy became very apparent. Letrados became specialized and authors
somehow got the idea that they could be good politicians (Rodó, Vasconcelos,
and one could even add Gallegos). Newspapers often are funded by the
governments that they are supposed to keep tabs on—governments that are often
repressive. Ergo many authors that worked as journalists had to deal with heavy
censorship or navigate around that censorship. The caudillismo of the 19th century had not died out but
rather evolved and taken on a new shape, bringing the lettered city with it
(remaining as a center of learning).
-
General Notes:
o
Modernización internacionalista:
1870-1920
o
Siglo XX transcurre con agitación y
movilidad creciente, como de crisis en crisis
o
Ya el letrado no pudo aspirar a dominar
el orbe entero de las letras. consecuencia: se delimitaron las disciplinas
o
Between 1880-1920 “Y como la literatura
no era en realidad una profesión sino una vocación, los hombres de letras se
convirtiero en periodistas o en maestros” (new model: filósofo, educador,
politólogo)
o
Filósofo begins to replace the role of
the priest, meanwhile la masa inculta vio en los sacerdotes a sus auténticos
defensores y guías espirituales
o
Educación como palanca social
VI) La ciudad revolucionada
-
Summary:
Caudillismo has remained, in some
shape, into the 20th century, in spite of attempts at other
governmental forms (Gallegos is an example here—I guess he was one of the
writer-politicians who did not perpetuate the bad establishment in the end. Cuba is another
example). Nationalism became very popular, in spite of its drawbacks. Not quite
everyone deserved education, not quite everyone could go far if they tried.
This nationalism kept power in the hands of a few, the current descendents of letrados from the past. Cultural
regeneration is not found in the conservation attitude of the city, but rather
in the vitality of the marginal folk cultures. Social doctrine became a common
aspect of literature put out by publishing houses that were to maintain “high
culture” by supporting the appropriate writers. Self-educated people came to
prominence and universities lost the intellectual monopoly that they’d had
(Octavio Paz is a good example of this sort of auto-didactic). Writers were
able to sustain themselves solely with their writing—they became professional
writers. Letrados remain important as
the people able to use language to express the ideas of revolution. Book ends
abruptly, reflecting its unfinished state.
-
General notes:
o
Cambio social profundo, yet “dictadura
de mayoría”
o
Educación popular + nacionalismo=
democracia latinoamericana
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