During Porfirio Díaz’s thirty-year rule, Mexico dealt with the press in disparate ways in hopes of forging an informed and, above all, orderly citizenry. Even as innumerable journalists were sent to prison on exaggerated and unfair charges of defamation or slander, Díaz’s government subsidized multiple newspapers to expand literacy and to aggrandize the image of the regime.
In Guardians of Discourse Kevin M. Anzzolin analyzes the role and representation of journalism in literary texts from Porfirian Mexico to argue that these writings created a literate, objective, refined, and informed public. By exploring works by Porfirian writers such as Emilio Rabasa, Ángel del Campo, Rafael Delgado, Laura Méndez de Cuenca, and Salvador Quevedo y Zubieta, Anzzolin demonstrates that a primary goal of the lettered class was to define and shape the character of public life, establish the social position of citizens, and interrogate the character of civil institutions.
These elite letrados —whom Anzzolin refers to as “guardians of discourse”—aimed to define the type of discourses that would buttress the transformed Mexico of the Díaz regime to forge a truly national literature that could be discussed among an expanded coterie of lettered thinkers. In addition, these Porfirian guardians hoped to construct an extensive and active public able to debate political and social issues via a press befitting a modern nation-state and create a press that would be independent, illuminating, and distinguished. Through an innovative look at Mexico’s public sphere via literary fiction in the Porfirian era, Anzzolin contributes to our knowledge of Mexican and Latin American political, cultural, and literary history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

lgrsnf/Guardians of Discourse Journalism and Literature in Porfirian Mexico [3877354].pdf

Wiley & Sons, Limited, John

United States, United States of America

During Porfirio Dazs thirty-year rule, Mexico dealt with the press in disparate ways in hopes of forging an informed and, above all, orderly citizenry. Even as innumerable journalists were sent to prison on exaggerated and unfair charges of defamation or slander, Dazs government subsidized multiple newspapers to expand literacy and to aggrandize the image of the regime.
In Guardians of Discourse , Kevin M. Anzzolin analyzes the role and representation of journalism in literary texts from Porfirian Mexico to argue that these writings created a literate, objective, refined, and informed public. By exploring works by Porfirian writers such as Emilio Rabasa, ngel del Campo, Rafael Delgado, Laura Mndez de Cuenca, and Salvador Quevedo y Zubieta, Anzzolin demonstrates that a primary goal of the lettered class was to define and shape the character of public life, establish the social position of citizens, and interrogate the character of civil institutions.
These elite letrados whom Anzzolin refers to as guardians of discourseaimed to define the type of discourses that would buttress the transformed Mexico of the Daz regime to forge a truly national literature that could be discussed among an expanded coterie of lettered thinkers. In addition, these Porfirian guardians hoped to construct an extensive and active public able to debate political and social issues via a press befitting a modern nation-state and to create a press that would be independent, illuminating, and distinguished. Through an innovative look at Mexicos public sphere via literary fiction in the Porfirian era, Anzzolin contributes to our knowledge of Mexican and Latin American political, cultural, and literary history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Guardians of Discourse
1. Insane Journalism in Novelas mexicanas and Reproducciones
2. Insalubrious Journalism in Pacotillas and La cuarta plana
3. Reporterism as Social Death in La Rumba and La Calandria
4. Yellow Journalism and Female Sociability in the Narrative of Laura Méndez de Cuenca
5. Arnulfo Arroyo, the Subsidized Press, and Illocutionary Acts in Quevedo y Zubieta’s La camada
Epilogue: The Public Sphere, or The Porfiriato’s Unfinished Project
Notes
Bibliography
Index

2024-05-29