Description:
One of Latin America's most famous historical figures, Simón Bolívar has become a mythic symbol for many nations, empires, and revolutions used to support wildly diverse--sometimes opposite--ideas. From colonial Cuba to Nazi-occupied France to Cold War-era Slovenia, the image of "El Libertador" has variously signified loyalty, national unity, liberation, freedom, and revolt.
In this volume, an array of international and interdisciplinary scholars shows the ways Bolívar has appeared over the last two centuries in painting, fiction, poetry, music, film, festival, dance, city planning, and even reliquary adoration. They illustrate how Bolívar's body has been exalted, reimagined, or fragmented in different contexts, taking on a range of meanings to represent the politics and poetics of today's national bodies.
By critically analyzing many examples of cultural Bolivarianisms, or cults of Bolívar, this collection demonstrates the capacity of the arts and humanities to challenge and reinvent hegemonic icons and narratives and, therefore, to be vital to democracy.
Review Quotes:
"These scholars make compelling cases for why each aspect of Bolívar's life was so significant and how his life was used to develop the Bolívarian cult. . . . This book shows how important Bolívar was--and still is--in Venezuela, regardless of one's political persuasion."--Journal of Global South Studies
"The contributions are essential for any who seek interdisciplinary avenues between history and art, as well as for those who focus on independence movements and reconstructive nation building. And the collection is extremely useful as a tool for the study of Latin American history, politics, and art combined. Finally, as a study of Bolívar, it is exemplary in terms of how to conduct nuanced analysis of an iconic and mythological figure."--caa.reviews
"A valuable contribution to the field of Bolivarian studies. . . . Students and specialists alike will find useful the documentary evidence and analyses these essays provide."--Revista de Estudios Hispanicos