Abstract
This article explores one of the most representative titles in Domingo Faustino Sarmiento’s oeuvre: the narrative of his journey to Spain ( Viaje ), undertaken in 1846. The Argentinean writer and politician articulates, with extraordinary stylistic flair, a critical view of Spain founded on his aesthetic perceptions. Sarmiento puts together a mosaic of sketches, etchings, portraits, and painterly allusions to the history of Spanish art as well as descriptions of Spanish cities, people, customs, and habits. It adds up to a museum of ignorance and underdevelopment: the panorama of a country reluctant to open itself up to the progressive currents of the nineteenth century. In this way, Sarmiento conveys the perspective of a genteel intellectual who never failed to feel a literary fascination towards the faces of barbarism.
Highlights
This article explores one of the most representative titles in Domingo Faustino Sarmiento’s oeuvre: the narrative of his journey to Spain (Viaje), undertaken in 1846
a critical view of Spain founded on his aesthetic perceptions
Sarmiento conveys the perspective of a genteel intellectual who never failed to feel a literary fascination towards the faces of barbarism
Summary
RESUMEN Este artículo revisa uno de los títulos más representativos de la bibliografía de Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (1811-2011): el Viaje a España, realizado en 1846. La visión crítica que plasma el escritor y político argentino de la sociedad española se articula a través de una dimensión plástica y estética, donde sobresalen las cualidades estilísticas de Sarmiento. El autor compone un mosaico con estampas, retratos, aguafuertes, alusiones pictóricas a la historia del arte español y descripciones de ciudades, gentes, costumbres y hábitos del pueblo español. Consigue constatar, a través de este museo de la incultura anclada en el retraso secular y en la renuencia española al soplo progresista del siglo XIX, la perspectiva de un “civilizado” que nunca dejó de sentir la fascinación literaria por los rostros de la “barbarie”.
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