Private Topographies: Space, Subjectivity and Political Change in Modern Latin America [Hardcover]

Marzena Grzegorczyk (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1403967482 | ISBN-13: 978-1403967480 | Publication Date: March 24, 2005 | Edition: First Edition

In Private Topographies, Grzegorczyk identifies and analyzes the types of postcolonial subjectivity prevalent among the Creole (Euro-American) ruling classes in post-independence, nineteenth-century century Latin America as articulated through their relation to their surroundings. Exactly how did creole elites change their self-conception in the wake of independence? In what ways and why did they feel compelled to restructure their personal space? What contradictions did they respond to? Where and how were the boundaries between public and private constructed? How were the categories of race and gender relevant to this process? For the first time, this book links together political transitions (the end of the colonial period in Latin America) with "implacements"--attempts that people make to reorganize the space around them. By looking at cartographies of states and regions, the structure of towns, and appearance and lay-out of homes in literature from Mexico, Argentina and Brazil from this nineteenth century period of transition, Grzegorczyk sheds new light on the ways a culture remakes itself and the mechanisms through which subjectivities shift during periods of political change.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Grzegorczyk effectively challenges the status quo of much recent scholarship in Latin American literature by writing a literary narrative organized around space as much as time, the historical and domestic experience of the postcolonial body as much as the memorial experience of the postcolonial mind... The book combines sound scholarship with a strikingly original argument, startling insights, beautiful close readings, and astute uses of historical background."--Roland Greene, Stanford University

"Thoroughly researched, rigorously argued, beautifully written, Private Topographies is one of the most provocative and stimulating books on modern Latin America. Using an impressive array of material from literature, architecture, psychoanalysis and social theory, Marzena
Grzegorczyk explores the profound implications that political transformations have both on peoples' daily lives, and on their cultural production. A brilliant piece of cultural criticism, recommended to anyone interested in Latin America, politics, philosophy or human condition in general." -- Ignacio Ramonet, Directeur du "Monde diplomatique"

"Private Topographies provides a powerful model for interdisciplinary thinking. Drawing upon such diverse areas as urban planning, political history, phenomenology, and post-colonial theory, Grzegorczyk examines the concept of space as it emerges within a series of major texts that cut across nineteenth-century Latin America. Interweaving themes such as citizenship, national identity, and subjectivity, she at once illuminates these texts and the culture out of which they arose."--Herbert Lindenberger, Stanford University, Avalon Foundation Professor of Humanities, Emeritus

"Private Topographies is an ambitious project that analyzes different types of subjectivities taking shape in politically and culturally transitional 19th-Century Latin America. In this post-indepencence period of flux, the interiors of homes, urban layouts, journeys, and regional topographies are being re-signified in terms of shifting notions of tradition and modernity, and the roles of subjects marked by different classes, races, and genders. By focusing on these re-
fs20definitions of spaces, Marzena Grzegorczyk is able to capture different aspects of the new Creole subjectivities in a complex contextual manner. ...a welcome contribution to the critical and theoretical renovation 19th-Century Latin American studies are currently undergoing."--Fernando Unzueta, Ohio State University

"Private Topographies examines the gridlocks of postcolonial subjectivity in the Latin American post-Independence period. In times of social and political turmoil the collective forms of spatio-temporal intuition change. As space displaces time, or as time displaces space, individuals must re-take time and space in the new nation. What the author calls acts of implacement are performative claims for belonging, for presence, or for appropriation. This book moves through the history of Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil in order to investigate the construction of the subject at the time of nation-building. It is an alternative and fascinating account concerning the problems of symbolic identification for emerging national communities."--Alberto Moreiras, Duke University

About the Author

Marzena Grzegorczyk is a Polish born scholar, writer and filmmaker. She holds a PhD from Stanford University and an MFA in film directing from USC School of Cinema-Television. She was a candidate to the European Parliament from Poland. Currently, she teaches at UCLA.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; First Edition edition (March 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403967482
• ISBN-13: 978-1403967480
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,638,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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