History, fiction and representations of the Bolivian nation in Soledad, by Bartolomé Mitre

• Grant number: 12/13829-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): August 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of America
• Principal Investigator: Stella Maris Scatena Franco
• Grantee: Mayra Vanessa Villca Troncozo
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project intends to analyze the novel Soledad, by Bartolomé Mitre, on the premise that the work was important for the affirmation and consolidation of Bolivian national identity. The background of this novel is the post-independence period (1826) of Alto Peru's colony, now Bolivia, and it was written in 1847, past the end of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation (1835-1839). Our main hypothesis is that, after the union between Peru and Bolivia, it was essential to reaffirm the Bolivian identity in opposition to the Peruvian one, thus legitimizing the new government. In this aspect, Mitre's romance contributed to this political project as it regained the post-independence context, which is understood by him like an uniqual process of Bolivian identity. So, from reading the novel and observing its production context and author, we will try to analyze three key issues: the relationship between history and literature to Mitre, since he is one of the leading historians of nineteenth-century Argentina; the relationship between the Bolivian and Argentine context, since Mitre lived in Bolivia in as an exiled, due to the government of Juan Manuel de Rosas in Argentina; the representations of the Bolivian nation within the novel and its relation to the dominant political project in the context of novel's production. Thus, using a literary production, we aim to contribute to the study of Bolivian national identity formation.(AU)