“Nuestra America” Today March 19, 2007

José Marti’s argument on European and American influence on
Latin America is still relevant today.  Through better means of communication, globalization has been an inevitable by-product amongst cultures.  Martí proposes a sort of communist and isolationist stand point that can in some way protect the Latin American culture from western influence.  Isolationist standpoints have never managed to survive for long in history so far.  The United States,
Japan, and others have had to succumb to the pressure of opening borders to foreigners whom insist on trade, economic and logistical assistance. 

 

The exportation of foreign culture and ideas has been extremely dominated by the European continent and the
U.S.  This of course, especially at the time of Martí, can be argued only effects a specific few with the monetary and intellectual means to come about this information.  The class distinction is significant when dealing with the subject of foreign culture saturation.  Nowadays things have changed as the cultural mediums of the middle and lower classes are now being filled by foreign exportations as well.   Before it was only through books and foreign travel that these influences could be found.  “Lower class” mediums of exposure such as television, movies and music now seem to make these foreign ideas more accessible to the lower classes.  This raises an interesting question, would Martí’s
America actually go against the imperialist regimes that influence and threaten Latin American culture? 

 

There does exists worldwide protest against
U.S. politics but at the same time an acceptance and desire for American culture.  American movies and music can be found all over the world.  The internet has created an expansive means of communication that takes globalization to an individual level.  Do most people feel a sufficient national or cultural pride that they would refuse to be exposed to an exported means of culture?  At this point I believe that the creation of a mutually universal community is being created.  Instead of stifling and doing away with cultural traditions and local customs, they can now be exported to other parts of the world where they can be valued and appreciated.  This fear of foreign cultural domination is understandable but in very many ways naïve in my opinion.  Cultures all over the world have come to adopt foreign customs and apply them to their own without losing site of who they are as a culture or a people.  Instead of the destruction of a culture a new one is being created, a global community.  Does this means political thought can be exported too?  With the creation of international organizations the possibility has become more plausible.  Foreign models of thought I believe are more easily applicable to foreign nations now then during Martí.  Of course changes would be made but understandings and procedures have been expanded such that it seems very likely that things could succeed.  Even though monetary influence is a major factor in the power scale in these international organizations, countries that may not have had a voice, now do.  Do you remember U.S. support for the
Iraq war?  The league of the willing was not as large as one would of expected perhaps at other times.  I may be a capitalism and global community proponent but just tell me your point of view.  Must countries protect themselves from foreign influence?

February 17, 2007

Scylla and Charybdis 

When I read through Petrarch´s sonnets, I got the impression they were very much where Shakespeare must have drawn influence.  Number 189 seemed a little bit different to me.  I made the comment during class that it was hard for me to distinguish some of these from being humanist or romantic.  Now that I have refreshed my memory some on romanticism, I can further elaborate using number 189 as an example.  The emotions expressed by Petrarch in this sonnet are strong and violent resembling none of the gentle desire and longing we had just read before .  The sea is “bitter” and it is an “eternal moist wind” that assails the ship.  The ship seems to be the centerpiece of the work as it “full of oblivion” and “cruel eager thought[s]” are found at each oar.  The setting is “winter’s midnight”and “reason and art” are being drowned by the waves.  The Enlightenment’s reason is being attakced by the unexplainable forces of nature.  The ship seems to be a personification of a lover that is woeful for not having his beloved.  But instead of finding the presence of some divine influence in the sonnet, it seems to be completely absent.  The “Lord” he makes mention of may be his beloved’s husband for he is his enemy.  Nature is an extention of human emotion as the rain is “of tears” and the mist is “of disdain.”  The protagonist is hopeless and full of despair because he has no where to go with his love.  He is caught between Scylla and Charybdis and if he goes forward he will find his enemy as an obstacle.  Obviously without intention, Petrarch combines some of the classical references of humanism and some of the boundless emotions and lack of reason of romanticism to provide a wonderful example of how these works cannot be neatly labeled into one single category. 

Next Post February 10, 2007

Historical narrative as a literary artifact

 

Whenever I think about history as a literary artifact, nothing comes better to mind as the chronicles of the New World exploration.  These accounts are filled with mythical references with specific intentions for its audience.  Hayden White discusses the creation of historical narratives as an unlikelyliterary genre that has been used to express certain points of view as and objective reality.  This argument could most certainly be applied to those chronicles of the Conquest of the Americas.  The authors of those chronicles would relativize their experiences in order to better relay what it was they were seeing in this new environment.  Vocabulary for these new things was not available so thus the new American wonders were subjected to European terminology.  The work becomes a sort of verbal artifact as the current reader can distinguish the verbal codes and tendancies stated within the work as contextual clues ofthe author’s influences and possible purpose.  White’s theory is very applicable to the new world chronicles but when it comes to more contemporary works, his theory more difficult to apply.  The modern historian has in some way become more conscious of the subjectivity of history and recognizes that finding an objective point of view is impossible.  This is why as we discussed in class it is so easy to find thousands of works on the same historical event.  The decision though of a wide-encompassing historical view point is up to the reader ultimately Thus the focus shouldn’t be on reforming the historical narrative process but rather on creating an educated audience that must ultimately decide which point of view or combination thereof it chooses to believe.   

Introduciónes February 8, 2007

Hi everybody.  My name is Claudia and I am a spanish graduate student just in case you didn’t know.  I am currently half way through the graduate program and I think this is my third class with Dr. C.  My focus is literature especially colonial and latin american.  I also have an addiction of fantastic literature.  I have my bachelors in french but it’s been almost three years since I’ve had to speak any of it.  Donc s’il avait quelqu’un qui voudrait pratiquer avec moi, je serais tres heureuse! 

Hey Guys! January 15, 2007

This blogging is defintely going to be a diffrent experience. I’m kind of excited because this can open up a whole lot of possibilities for expression.