"Hacia la luz de la civilización" : afrodescendientes y nación en la literatura argentina (1851-1882)

Abstract

The dichotomy civilization/barbarity was recurrent in 19th century Argentinian literature. People of African descent were usually placed in the negative side of the equation, that is, associated with barbarousness. In this paper this dichotomy is used as an axis for looking into representations of African descendants in representative literary works in order to set off in contrast these representations produced by the elites with the poetic works of several authors of African descent of Buenos Aires. Reading both kinds of historical sources makes it clear that they have coincidences and differences in their places in the scheme of civilization and barbarity.