Rewriting National Fictions: Adapting Citizenship in Foundational Narratives

How do new nations consolidate their citizenry under a collective identity with shared traits, beliefs, and values? How do contemporary citizens grapple with the constraints on the ideal citizen? In this course we study the “foundational fictions” that united Latin American countries after their independence from Spain, using Argentina as our principal case study. We analyze the implications of these narratives, namely who is excluded? To answer this question, we perform comparative readings of foundational fictions and their reinterpretations that seek to identify and rectify these exclusions. Texts include Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities; Doris Sommer’s Foundational Fictions; José Hernandez’s Martín Fierro and Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s Las aventuras de la China Iron; Domingo Faustino Sarmiento’s Facundo and Ricardo Piglia’s Respiración artificial.