Latinoamericanismo Y Modernidad En La Obra Ensayistica De Arturo Uslar Pietri

Resumen del Libro

This dissertation follows the political and literary ideas of the late Venezuelan writer Arturo Uslar Pietri. Analysis of his essayistic production focuses on his reflections on three major topics: universality, Latin Americanism, and Venezuelan national identity. By universality I refer to Uslars reflections on general human culture and the way in which the crises of many ethical, philosophical, and scientific postulates of modernity are felt and expressed by this author through his critical appraisal of 20th-century history and culture. His most extensive and controversial reflections are those on Latin American identity, historical, socio-cultural and political processes, and philosophical thought, configuring what might be called a Latin American rationality. National reflections follow the authors ideas on three topics: oil and its (mostly negative) impact on all aspects of Venezuelan life, the rescue of national history as a means to construct a Venezuelan identity, and the quest to identify/configure a national subject akin to the new rationality. My conclusion examines the essay-novel relationship as a compendium of Uslars ideas and public political practices, as illustrated in his novels, where changing global realities are reflected in the most concrete aspects of Venezuelan daily life.