Not being very familiar with Latin American literature, I am not sure where to start exactly. Reading Facundo, one of the things that jumps out at me is the structure of the novel. Indeed, Sarmiento's vow to "evoke" the "terrible specter of Facundo" (31), which sounds almost like an invocation of an admittedly strange type of muse , the description of the physical landscape of Argentina and the catologue of characters have all the makings of an epic. All this is accentuated by the use of dramatic diction and very vivid imagery. It is also set up as a dialectic between "civilization" (good?) and "barbarism" (evil?) as many an epic before it. We shall see how it all plays out as we read further on but I shall now move on to other aspects of the work.
I found the earlier part of the book very difficult to get through though I am not exactly sure why. Perhaps I feel that too much emphasis is placed on the description of the landscape. But, be that as it may, I was glad to find the pace pick up as I got further along.
Of course, it is difficult to ignore Sarmiento's racist and ethnocentric ideas and rhetoric (with regard to indigenous peoples) and his prejudice against peasents and all thsoe who do not fit his ideas of "civilization." I find it very ironic that Sarmiento, as someone who is supposedly enlightened and possesses the education the lack of which he laments in his countrymen, accepts so uncritically the "sweetness and light," to borrow Matthew Arnold's terms, of the European "civilization," --one that he does not himself belong to. Of course, in a sense Sarmiento is a product of his time, as shown by his numerous references to science, or quasi-science (Phrenology), so popular in Europe at the time and which was used to perpetuate European colonialism and oppression of the "savages" in the colonies. It is also interesting to note the subtle tone of admiration for the goucho in Sarniento's descriptions of him, and indeed in the description of Facundo himself, especially in the final passages of Chapter V.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I also found the first chapter somewhat difficult to get through at first, and I was wondering if it was the content of the chapter itself, or if I just hadn't warmed up to Sarmiento's writing style yet. As well, I was kind of getting a bit irritated by Sarmiento's assertion about the "sweetness and the light" of European civilization. I think though what caused me to feel this way was that while the author goes to such great lengths to prove to his readers that (with the exception of Buenos Aires) Argentina is populated by a barbarous people, he did not go to the same length to prove that European civilization was worthy of admiration and emulation.
Hi Darja! Like you and Julie, I found the first chapter really hard to get through as the descriptions of the geography and society were quite repetitive... I agree with you on how he held prejudice against peasants, but where did he express racism in book?
i also agree with the others...the first chapters were pretty dry. it does get a lot more interesting when he introduces Facundo.
i think if there is a racism that you sense, its there for a reason, to show how things were, not to necessarily say that he is racist himself. he does seem to try to glorify the European civilization, but again, i think it is for a reason.
Post a Comment