Bello and Bolívar
Poetry and Politics in the Spanish American Revolution

In this 1992 book, Antonio Cussen reconstructs Bello's account of the Spanish American Revolution.

Antonio Cussen (Author)

9780521412483, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 7 May 1992

224 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.5 kg

"...a fascinating and eminently readable narrative about two historical figures (yes, even the bookish Bello) that I and many others find profoundly seductive." Elizabeth Garrels, Latin American Literary Review

As Andrés Bello predicted in 1823, the glory of Simón Bolívar has continued to grow since the Spanish American Revolution. The Revolution is still viewed as an almost mythical quest, and the name of the Libertador has become synonymous with the region's hopes for integration. In this 1992 book, the official history of the Revolution - the heroic history of Bolívar - is replaced by the account of Bello, who was first Bolívar's teacher and later his critic. Through a detailed study of the manuscripts of Bello's unfinished poem América, Antonio Cussen reconstructs Bello's version of the Revolution and seeks to understand its political and cultural consequences. The author argues that Bello recorded the disintegration of the Augustan model of power and intimated the inevitable approach of liberalism with a certain longing for the classical culture of his youth.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. Caracas (1781–1810): 1. Augustan Caracas
2. Revolt
Part II. London (1810–29)
3. Independence
4. The reconquest
5. The decided revolution
6. The new Augustus
7. The campaign of the monarchists
8. Poetry visits America
9. 'Agricultura'
10. Bolívar poetics
Part III. Santiago: (1829–65): 11. The liberal poets
12. The exile
Appendix
Notes
Bibliographical note
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC]