In my dissertation I analyze the discursive construction of cultural identities during the first century of European colonial occupation in the Americas. In order to do so, I explore a broad variety of colonial discourses using a conceptual reading tool I designate ethnographic writing. This concept describes representational devices such as stereotypes, tropes, and analogies whose primary function is the religious, political, and ideological creation of cultural differences. Given the variety of the written material covered in the studytravel logs, juridical documents, religious chronicles, literary textsI use an interdisciplinary approach which combines the theoretical tools of historiography, anthropology, cultural and literary theory, and discourse analysis. It is my contention that ethnographic writing creates a discursive matrix that articulates: 1) knowledge about the savage; and 2) the invention of new social and racial subjectivities. I assert that ethnographic writing has political effects of power and knowledge that affected, in a direct way, the culture and lives of the American Others. Therefore, to read ethnographic writing is also to read the strategies of colonial domination and the violence embodied in Eurocentric representations. My dissertation, through the analysis and interpretation of conceptual procedures such as social classifications, erection of cultural similarities and differences, and the invention of moral and religious dichotomies, contributes to the existing theorization of racism, colonialism, and ethnocentrism in Latin American literature. It is through the deconstruction of these ethnographic discourses that I propose a cultural critique and a re-evaluation of colonialism.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03302009-074605 |
| Date | 08 April 2009 |
| Creators | Solodkow, David Mauricio |
| Contributors | Carlos.a.jauregui, Edward.h.friedman, Benigno Trigo, Edward F. Fischer |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu//available/etd-03302009-074605/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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