Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawai'i, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / English / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 187-194).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2008. / Title from title screen (viewed Apr. 22, 2009) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Dept. of History, Faculty of Arts. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Political Science, December 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 4, 2009) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2007. / "Graduate Program in History." Includes bibliographical references (p. 316-337).

Zugl.: Münster (Westfalen), Univ., Diss., 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

My dissertation examines how mid-nineteenth century Spanish American letrados in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico –considered as exemplary case studies–, interpreted the unending violence present in their nations. They did so, I argue, by resorting to what I term “blood discourses”: overdetermined, shared, contested, and unstable textual and visual discourses, wide in connotations but mainly –not solely– coming from an inherited medical and religious tradition. These blood discourses were a direct response to a concrete reality which belied the promises of the independence process: surrounded by civil and international war, political polarization, and “caudillo” authoritarianism, letrados of varied ideological stances made use of and disputed these inherited, ready-made and ready-at-hand “blood discourses” to endow with meaning the national violence that surrounded them and establish foundational narratives. In doing so, they enacted three interconnected intellectual procedures, which I analyze distinctly, in the invigorated public sphere of the time. These three interconnected procedures or operation, in turn, were buttressed by a hemato-centric conception of rhetoric which guaranteed their efficacy: first, letrados developed “circulatory diagnoses”, assuming the role of the nation’s “physician-letrados”, a procedure which will be examined in Juan Manuel de Rosas’s Argentina; second, they engaged in what I term “work on martyrdom”, the elaboration of genealogical martyrdom narratives, as will be shown by analyzing the case of the Archbishop of Bogotá, Manuel José Mosquera; and finally, building upon the first two operations, they effected a “coagulation of memory” which enabled them, in their role as “historian-genealogists”, to construct a representation of national history based and substantiated by the shedding of blood. This last chapter will focus on the Mexican El libro rojo, a landmark work on the nation’s own representation of history. Through a heterogeneous archive of sources belonging to a wide ideological spectrum –newspapers, essays, novels, historical works, images, even monuments– my dissertation contends that these ubiquitous visual and textual discourses on violence lie at the core, as conditions of possibility, of how Spanish American letrados thought, wrote, and visualized the Nation. Additionally, by bringing together religion, political economy, and historiography, it allows blood discourses to bridge distinct realms of the period’s vast intellectual output. Lastly, by adopting an international, continental perspective, it overcomes the disproportionate presence of “national histories” showcasing instead similitudes and differences but also transferences and influences beyond national boundaries. Throughout the dissertation, the productive influence of philosophers, anthropologists, and historians – foremost among them Gil Anidjar, Reinhardt Koselleck, Adriana Cavarero, William Reddy, Hans Blumenberg, Elaine Scarry, Stephen Bann, and Thomas W. Laqueur– helped me frame my concepts and construct my own interpretative schemes. In short, by having an impact on the disciplines of Intellectual History, Religious Studies, and Nation-building, this dissertation hopes to shed new light on how the visual and textual interpretation of violence is inseparable from, and indeed made possible by, what I take to be “blood discourses” and the three intrinsically related operations they gave rise to.

The reign of Henri III saw a multiplication of penitential acts: theological texts on repentance were published, new penitential orders founded, and processions organized that included acts of mortification—many of which were led by the king himself, who could be seen marching through the streets of Paris dressed in a penitential sackcloth. Why did the concept of repentance acquire such an unprecedented political import during the second half of the sixteenth century? Based on the examination of a wide range of textual sources including treatises, pamphlets, journals, public sermons, prayers, satirical poems, as well as major works by Jacques-Auguste de Thou, Pierre de L’Estoile, and Pierre Victor Palma Cayet, my dissertation seeks to bring answers to this understudied question, which must be understood in light of a variety of theological-political factors and complex historical circumstances. Not simply a theological concept governing personal gestures of contrition and regret towards God, repentance began to function as a political concept during the Wars of Religion. It served both as an instrument in the affirmation of monarchical power and as a means to delegitimize it. With Henri III’s penitential processions, repentance broke away from the confines of the private sphere to take to the streets. Soon it became ubiquitous, part of a common theological-political vocabulary: in the years 1588-1589, the ultra-Catholic League as well as other political forces opposing the king appropriated processions and penitential spaces, turning them into sites of resistance and contestation. As a result, even if penance had become an almost idiosyncratic feature of Henri III’s style of government, little of its currency was lost after his assassination. With Henri IV’s conversion to Catholicism in 1593, repentance acquired a new political face. Placed in the difficult position of having to restore order in France, Henri IV and his supporters adopted several political strategies to counter the efforts of contentious factions within the realm. The rhetoric of penance and forgiveness became one of the tools that allowed the king to reestablish and stabilize his political authority and legitimacy. During the Surrender of Paris in 1594, Henri IV took on the role of the merciful monarch dispensing forgiveness. This strengthened his sovereignty and he became, as the historical reception of his image attests, the king who saved France from the Wars of Religion. Reconciliation, however, came at a price. When Henri IV issued the Edict of Nantes in 1598, an act that instituted a bi-confessional state in France, repentance no longer stood at the core of political reconciliation and stability, but rather at its limits. Instead of acknowledging the past atrocities in the form of an “institutionalized” or public form of repentance, the king wielded the rhetoric of forgiveness in order to efface penance. References to the past violence or to religious topics susceptible of fueling civil discord were censored. Because the dramatic and ostensible processions of penance made popular by Henri III had been more likely to incite people to violence rather than to pacify them, Henri IV and Royalists discredited their political import in the public sphere. Repentance was being censured, and perhaps for this reason more present than ever. By supporting the suppression of public representations of penance, with the goal of restoring “civil accord,” Henri IV decidedly reshaped collective identity and memory for both Catholics and Protestants.