Conspiraciones de Esclavos Y Animales Fabulosos - (Serie Nuevo Siglo) by Betina González (Paperback)

About the Book

The texts analysed in Conspiraciones de esclavos y animales fabulosos never entered the literary canon of the 19th century. These are plays, journalistic prose and short stories with a didactic or moral vocation, texts in which José de Alencar, Machado de Assis, Federico Gamboa, Juan Bautista Morales and Lucio and Eduarda Mansilla use the figure of the slave or the talking animal to criticise, indoctrinate or reflect on the power relations of their time. Conspiraciones de esclavos y animales fabulosos rescues these texts and advances the understanding of the role of intellectuals in the ideological debates of their time. These six essays show how, through drama and the tradition of fables, the societies of México, Argentina and Brazil, not only critically reflected on their daily relations of domination, but also established a rich dialogue with the philosophy of the Enlightenment, which already contains the animal and the slave as disturbing images on which an entire definition of being human is based and, at the same time, the contractual legitimacy of the modern state.

Book Synopsis

Los textos que analiza Conspiraciones de esclavos y animales fabulosos jamás entraron al canon literario del siglo XIX. Se trata de obras de teatro, prosa periodística y relatos breves con vocación didáctica o moral, textos en los que José de Alencar, Machado de Assis, Federico Gamboa, Juan Bautista Morales y Lucio y Eduarda Mansilla utilizan la figura del esclavo o del animal parlante para criticar, adoctrinar o reflexionar sobre las relaciones de poder de su época. Conspiraciones de esclavos y animales fabulosos es un rescate de estos textos y un avance en la comprensión del rol de los intelectuales en los debates ideológicos de su época. Estos seis ensayos muestran cómo a través del drama y de la tradición fabulística, las sociedades de México, Argentina y Brasil, no sólo reflexionaron críticamente sobre sus relaciones cotidianas de dominación sino que entablaron un diálogo riquísimo con la filosofía de la ilustración, que ya contiene al animal y al esclavo como imágenes inquietantes sobre las que se funda toda una definición de lo humano y, a la vez, la legitimidad contractual del Estado moderno.

The texts analysed in Conspiraciones de esclavos y animales fabulosos never entered the literary canon of the 19th century. These are plays, journalistic prose and short stories with a didactic or moral vocation, texts in which José de Alencar, Machado de Assis, Federico Gamboa, Juan Bautista Morales and Lucio and Eduarda Mansilla use the figure of the slave or the talking animal to criticise, indoctrinate or reflect on the power relations of their time. Conspiraciones de esclavos y animales fabulosos rescues these texts and advances the understanding of the role of intellectuals in the ideological debates of their time. These six essays show how, through drama and the tradition of fables, the societies of México, Argentina and Brazil, not only critically reflected on their daily relations of domination, but also established a rich dialogue with the philosophy of the Enlightenment, which already contains the animal and the slave as disturbing images on which an entire definition of being human is based and, at the same time, the contractual legitimacy of the modern state.