Bolivarism as political language: the work of Antônio Leocadio Guzmán in the periodical El Venezolano and the public-party debate in Venezuela (1840-1846)

• Grant number: 22/14296-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: April 01, 2023
• End date: June 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of America
• Principal Investigator: José Alves de Freitas Neto
• Grantee: Matheus Amilton Martins
• Supervisor: Elías José Palti
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidad Nacional de Quilmes (UNQ), Argentina
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/04544-1 - The Bolivarianism as a political language: the performance of Antônio Leocadio Guzmán in the periodical el Venezolano and the public-party debate in Venezuela (1840-1846), BP.DR

Abstract

In this project, I propose to investigate the vocabulary of Venezuelan politics in the context of the emergence of Bolivarianism on the local scene. Starting in 1840, a decade after the procer's banishment and death, the image and work of Simón Bolívar were progressively rehabilitated in his homeland. Supported by the premises of the history of political thought, I will observe how the evocation of the Liberator in public debate rearticulated the conditions of enunciations of the scenario, enabling semantic innovations that shifted the conventions and contingencies prevailing in national politics. The present proposal is a history of the debates in which intellectuals operated to define their positions and themselves as influential actors in public disputes. With this interest, my attention will focus on the political articles of the oppositionist Antonio Leocadio Guzmán in the periodical El Venezolano (1840-1846) and the responses that his statements provoked in the universe of national political literature. From these texts, it will be possible to see that in a short period of time the Liberator's legacy was claimed - or understood - in a plural way. In view of this polysemy, I argue that Bolivarianism emerged on the Venezuelan scene as a political language whose communicational aspects were directly involved in the formation of public debate and the possibility of a critical and party politics. Once it was employed in attributing meanings to key concepts of the moment, Bolivarianism offers a promising entry to understand, on its own terms, the frontiers of politics in the early days of the Republic of Venezuela. (AU)