The City of Translation Poetry and Ideology in Nineteenth-Century Colombia

The two principal questions thatThe City of Translationsets out to answer are: how did poetry, philology, catechesis, and literary translation legitimate a coterie of right-wing literati's rise to power in Colombia? And how did these men proceed to dismantle a long-standing liberal-democratic state without derogating basic constitutional freedoms? To answer those questions, Jose Maria Rodriguez Garcia investigates the emergence, development, and decline of what he calls "the reactionary city of translation"--a variation on, and a correction to, Angel Rama's understanding of the nineteenth-century "lettered city" as a primarily liberal and modernizing project.The City of Translationmakes the tropes of "translatio" the conceptual nucleus of a comprehensive analysis that cuts across academic disciplines, ranging from political philosophy and the history of concepts to the relationship of literature to religious doctrine and the law.

José María Rodríguez-García is Associate Professor of Romance Studies at Duke University.

The Colombian Lettered City: Philology, Ideology, Translation * The Regime of Translation in Caro's Colombia * Hugo, Bello, Caro * Regeneration without Revolution: Caro contra Bolívar * Conclusion: On Lettered Cities, Political Theologies, and the Writing of Lyric