Foundational Fictions: The National Romances of Latin America (Latin American Literature and Culture

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Academic and Research Appointments. A New Sentimental Education , forthcoming in from Duke.

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Proceed with Caution, when engaged by minority writing in the Americas. Harvard University Press, Editor, The Places of History: Regionalism Revisited in Latin America. Duke University Press, University of California Press, Spanish edition forthcoming, Fondo de Cultura.

One Master for Another: Populism as Patriarchal Rhetoric in Dominican Novels. University Press of America, Marjorie Garber et al, New York:.

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Peggy Phelan New York University. Josefina Ludmer Rosario, Arg.: Beatriz Viterbo , Marjorie Garber, New York: United States Imperialism, eds. Marjorie Garber New York: Testimonial Discourse and Latin America , ed. Theoretical Essays on Women's Autobiography, eds. Diogo embodies the ideals of eighteenth century enlightenment and as such, at least in theory, is in a unique position to supposedly understand "otherness. The difference that they tolerate has to correspond to their pre-established notions. Hence, ultimately, they do not recognize the validity of native culture.

As a group of Guaicuru bathes playfully in a stream, they are encountered by the Portuguese men who stop in wonderment, entranced by the nude women. For a brief moment, the Guaicuru continue to laugh and banter unselfconsciously in the water while the Portuguese stare, frozen and seemingly bewitched by the sight.

This powerful moment interrupts the momentum of the film and its intense tranquility produces a slow-motion effect through which the scene is viewed entirely from the perspective of the Portuguese men. This lustful, one-sided connection marks the first step of the encounter between the pair. And, though unsettling to viewers, the scene strikes a necessary chord by exposing the impact of the cultural clash between the colonizers and the Guaicuru. The pair becomes closer as they begin to view each other as human beings, and through this gradual process of realization, they concede to one another.

Their mutual union results from both lust and a newfound affection for one another, but neither lover anticipates bearing a child together. Though visibly ashamed by the obvious outcome of his "sin," he promises that their child will be raised a Christian, and that "it will bear my abilities and her purity.

She refuses to respond, and Diogo is horrified to learn from the bandeirante that Guaicuru women traditionally murder their firstborn children to keep the tribe more lithe and able to flee on short notice.

Foundational Fictions: The National Romances of Latin America

Thus finalizes their fruitless union which ends as tragically as it began. The storyline and cinematic techniques however, can be interpreted through a variety of theories and critical perspectives. Hence for example, the North American tale of Pocahontas shares uncanny thematic connections to its Brazilian counterparts.

In his analysis of the legend entitled Pocahontas: Tilton breaks down a myriad of didactic intentions fueling various configurations of the story.

Much like the Brazilian works concerning the current study, "The Pocahontas narrative provided literary and visual artists with a flexible discourse that came to be used to address a number of racial, political and gender-related issues" Tilton 1. Superficially speaking, Pocahontas and Brave New Land share many commonalities in this sense; both storylines take place during New World colonization and involve the fleeting union between a beautiful Indian princess and a good-hearted European explorer.

However, being that Pocahontas is a cherished North American historic figure whose real-life story veered off in the opposite direction of her legendary narrative, one must question the "racial, political and gender-related issues" addressed or not addressed through the manipulation of her story.

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Perhaps, as Tilton suggests, "Any combination of sex and race raises for white Americans the bugaboo of miscegenation…" Because of the sentiment against the portraying of successful interracial unions during the antebellum period, it is not hard to imagine the dilemma faced by early nineteenth-century writers who wanted to use the already popular Pocahontas material.

In a literary climate in which a rendering of a happy mixed marriage, even that of national heroine Pocahontas and John Rolfe, might be seen as inappropriate, what had to be discovered was a way to avoid the seemingly unfortunate turn that the narrative takes toward its conclusion. Clearly, the final separation of the Indian and White couples at the end of both Brave New Land and the fictionalized legend of Pocahontas imply the existence of a national racial problem.

My intention, in associating the two stories, lies in highlighting Pocahontas as another anti-foundational text while also calling attention to the ideological differences inherent in the agenda of both tales. In Brazil, miscegenation with native people was quasi-official policy, whereas the occasional U. S proposals to assimilate Indians through intermarriage were officially rejected.

Thus, while North American ideology promoted myths of separation, and the doomed nature of love between white and Indian for example in the novels of James Fenimore Cooper , Brazilian ideology promoted myths of fusion through what Doris Sommer calls "foundational romances" of love between European and indigene.

Approached from a contemporary perspective in relation to the aforementioned nineteenth century romantic literature, Brave New Land seems to take into consideration twentieth century discourse regarding New World contact and colonial relations.

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Although the Guaicuru succeed in assassinating the group of bandeirantes who ambushed the bathers and ravaged their community, the film extinguishes any spark of hope incited in the audience as it quickly cuts to a contemporary documentary-like scene. An old woman cries and sings traditional Guaicuru songs as she reads a book about her people written by cartographer Diogo de Castro e Albuquerque.

As the movie comes to a close, we learn that the remaining members of the scarcely existent Guaicuru Indian community now inhabit a reservation as their population dwindles.

This diverging ideology of indigenous representation may be due in part to the fundamental problem of adequately comprehending and representing the Other. This is, the Other becomes co-opted for a certain discourse — be it colonial discourse Las Casas, Andrieta, Caminha , the discourse of nation-building Alencar or post-colonial critique Murat. For example, while Indianism, particularly in colonial and nation-building discourse, presents the Indigenous subject in a sympathetic light through associations with exoticism, sentimentalism, exalted social revalorization and often picaresque characteristics Melendez 13 , it tends to detract from the humanity of the native by creating one-dimensional characters that lack significant development.

Furthermore, Indianist texts, by definition refer to material created about Indians by outsiders of that cultural sphere.

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