Naciones Intelectuales - Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures by Ignacio Sanchez Prado Paperback

About the Book

Naciones Intelectuales explores the processes and works that laid the foundations of a new literary modernity in the wake of the Mexican Revolution. It focuses on the period from the signing of the Constitution in 1917, to the death of Alfonso Reyes in 1959, and analyzes the four elements of Mexican cultural practices: the notion of literature, the figure of the intellectual, the creation of academic institutions, and the definition of national identity that emerged through the various debates held by leading figures of the period. The book analyzes different key moments, controversies, and cultural interventions, which ultimately led the diverse aesthetic spectrum created by the revolution into becoming a highly institutional system of literature. This book offers a cartography of Mexican literary institutions unprecedented in scope, which will allow readers, students, and scholars to understand the construction of modern Mexican literature in a clear, rigorous, and systematic way.

Book Synopsis

Naciones Intelectuales explores the processes and works that laid the foundations of a new literary modernity in the wake of the Mexican Revolution. It focuses on the period from the signing of the Constitution in 1917, to the death of Alfonso Reyes in 1959, and analyzes the four elements of Mexican cultural practices: the notion of literature, the figure of the intellectual, the creation of academic institutions, and the definition of national identity that emerged through the various debates held by leading figures of the period. The book analyzes different key moments, controversies, and cultural interventions, which ultimately led the diverse aesthetic spectrum created by the revolution into becoming a highly institutional system of literature. This book offers a cartography of Mexican literary institutions unprecedented in scope, which will allow readers, students, and scholars to understand the construction of modern Mexican literature in a clear, rigorous, and systematic way.

Review Quotes

Chasqui 41.2 (Nov. 2012): 195-98.

It is no accident that these investigations [Fictions of Totality by Ryan F. Long and Naciones intelectuales by Ignacio M. Sanchez Prado] into the relation between Mexican literature and the Mexican state should have been published toward the end of the first decade of the 21st century (and should have seen the light at the same press). ... These books trace thus a sort of map that orients us toward the intersection between literature, history and politics in 20th-century Mexico.

[the invitation of Sanchez Prado's book: ] by means of "intellectual nations," he proposes "a space of thought about Mexico that doesn't rely on mestizaje and stereotypes." It is an invitation that must be accepted.

Long has created a solid work and his book consititutes without doubt a contribution to the interpretation of this literary period in Mexico.

These critics [Long and Sanchez Prado] have accepted the challenge to construct a serious criticism, professional and attentive to the object of study, avoiding both the interpretation "de moda" in academic circles and one that is merely descriptive or exempt from hermeneutic risk. And they have come out with flying colors, with two contributions that are very important to the better understanding of a Mexico that needs them. --Pablo Brescia, University of Florida


IGNACIO M. SaNCHEZ PRADO. "Naciones intelectuales. Las fundaciones de "la modernidad literaria mexicana (1917-1959). West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 2009. En los multiples acercamientos criticos a la trayectoria de la literatura mexicana moderna, parece ser casi inevitable la preocupacion por el lugar de la nacion y del nacionalismo, como parte de una estructura abarcadora que determina, en parte, los contornos de lo literario, tanto en la produccion como en la circulacion y recepcion de textos. Si la cuestion del "ser mexicano," y de la nacion totalizante persiste como enfoque critico, tambien sigue presente en muchos casos como barrera o limite, proveyendo una tension contra la cual el autor pretende tejer sus lineas de fuga o ejes de reestructuracion. Buscar la salida de la "jaula" o del "laberinto," si se permite el prestamo de terminos de Bartra y de Lomnitz, respectivamente, se convierte, en muchos casos, en el eje fundamental, y acaso paradojico, de un acercamiento a la literatura mexicana nacional, si no nacionalista. El proyecto de Sanchez Prado se inscribe en esta tendencia critica, como el mismo autor afirma cuando define su concepto de "nacion intelectual" "un conjunto de producciones discursivas, enunciadas sobre todo desde la literatura, que imaginan, dentro del marco de la cultura nacional hegemonica, proyectos alternativos de la nacion" (1). En este fascinante estudio, que ya ha tenido y sin duda seguira teniendo impacto en los campos de las literaturas mexicanas y latinoamericanas, Sanchez Prado elabora una lectura detallada de los discursos literarios de una serie de figuras para el claves en la historia de las letras mexicanas, sobre todo por sus posiciones variadas y a veces antagonicas para con el poder estatal y la cultura oficializada del PRI. Lo que emerge de su proyecto es una historia literaria innovadora por la combinacion de su analisis literario preciso de los textos, y su vision panoramica de las instituciones cultural

"This critical account centers its interest on the works and writers who were capable of imagining alternative versions of the Mexican nation and identity, discourses that the author terms 'naciones intelectuales' (intellectual nations). ... one of the major successes of Sanchez Prado is the systematization of all this nonconformist legacy ... "Naciones intelectuales" is an essential reference for every reader who wishes to understand Mexican literary modernity beyond theoretical stereotypes, antiquated interpretations, and standard discussions about the nation." --Carles Ferrando Valero, "Colorado Review of Hispanic Studies" 8-9 (Fall 2010-11): 411-13.

About the Author

Ignacio M. Sanchez Prado has published extensively on Mexican literature and culture, and on questions of the relationship between canon construction, world literature, and Latin American writing.