Abolitionism

doi:10.1017/9781108976367.015

Chapter 14 - Abolitionism

from Part III - Uprisings

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 January 2023

Víctor Goldgel-Carballo

Edited by

Fernando Degiovanni and

Javier Uriarte

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Fernando Degiovanni: Affiliation:
City University of New York
Javier Uriarte: Affiliation:
Stony Brook University, State University of New York

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Summary

With a focus on Brazil, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, this chapter examines the sense of belatedness in abolitionist and postabolitionist literature published between the 1860s and the 1930s. Belatedness implied an affective relationship to the global temporality of abolition – a way of feeling time as shame that shaped literature in long-lasting ways. Writers like José Martí and Machado de Assis reflected on the apparently anomalous status of their nations, where slavery was not abolished until 1886 and 1888 respectively. By analyzing canonical literature in light of the Black public spheres that emerged in the last decades of the nineteenth century, this chapter explores questions such as the rejection of African cultures, Whitening ideologies, the fantasy of the submissive slave, the myths and realities of racial democracy, Maroonage, and other forms of slave resistance. Other writers analyzed include Maria Firmina dos Reis, Antônio de Castro Alves, Alfonso Henriques de Lima Barreto, Martín Morúa Delgado, and Francisco Calcagno.

Keywords

abolitionism antislavery literature Cuban literature Brazilian literature Puerto Rican literature belatedness Machado de Assis José Martí Francisco Calcagno Martín Morúa Delgado

Type: Chapter
Information: Latin American Literature in Transition 1870–1930 , pp. 208 - 221

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108976367.015 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2022

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