A Geography of Hard Times, livre ebook

Unravels the rich complexities of the colonial travel experience.

Unravels the rich complexities of the colonial travel experience.

This fascinating glimpse into South America's past focuses on the works of four European voyagers who came to South America and left a legacy of travel writing in their wake: José Celestino Mutis, a Spanish botanist and doctor; Alexander von Humboldt, a German geographer; Maria Graham, a British historian; and Flora Tristán, a French feminist and labor activist whose father was Peruvian. Each took on his or her voyage as a personal endeavor, and collectively their travels covered the Andes from its northern traces in Venezuela to the southern heights of Chile and Arequipa. Their writing contributed to the construction of a complex map of the Andes in which many levels of physical and social geography may be read. By analyzing the travelers' narratives, illustrations, and maps, Ángela Pérez-Mejía unravels the rich complexities of the colonial travel experience, explores its impact on both the object of description and the traveler's subjectivity, and the collective readership seeking a discourse of nationhood.

Acknowledgments

List of Illustrations
Introduction
PART I: THE SCHOLAR AND THE BARON: VOYAGE OF THE EXACT SCIENCES
Introduction to Part I
1. Mutis, or the Trap of Mutisia Clematis
2. Humboldt: The Silences and Complicities of Cartography
PART II: THE DAUGHTER OF THE EAST AND THE PARIAH: VOYAGE OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Introduction to Part II
3. Graham: The White Daughter of the East, or a Foreigner in Indomitable Lands
4. Tristán, or the Incendiary Geography of a Pilgrim Pariah
Epilogue
Notes
References
Index