Abstract

LONDONO SIERRA, Sebastián. Nation in Spite of Forms: A Poetic Construction of the Republic. Co-herencia [online]. 2014, vol.11, n.21, pp.141-167. ISSN 1794-5887.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the role of poetry as an essential element in the project of independence, both as an instrument responsible for the creation of the new emancipated reality, on one hand, and of a concept of nation based on a republican notion of such, on the other. It reviews La victoria de Junín. Canto a Bolívar, by José Joaquín de Olmedo, and Alocución a la poesía. Fragmentos de un poema titulado ''América'' y La agricultura de la zona tórrida, by Andrés Bello. The review focuses on these poems, since they are considered essential for the configuration of the American people´s concept of nation. The hypothesis of the text is that as a consequence of the lack of an own concept, poetry is essential for its figurative function, and that the illustrious poets of the emancipation process are the ones who make up for the lack of a common and own past around which the nation as an imagined community could be built.

Keywords : Independence; poetry; republicanism; patriotism; Andrés Bello; José Joaquín de Olmedo.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )