Well-researched analysis of the impact that Spain and Spanish America had on antebellum literature in the United States.
In Hispanicism and Early US Literature , author John C. Havard posits that representations of Spain, Spanish America, Spanishness, and Spanish Americanness are integral elements in the evolution of early national and antebellum US literature. He argues that Spanish-speaking countries have long held a broad fascination for Americans and that stock narratives regarding these peoples were central to the period’s US literature.
Beginning with the work of eighteenth-century literary nationalists such as Joel Barlow, US literature has been drawn to reflect on Spain and Spanish America. Such reflection was often inspired by geopolitical conflicts such as US expansion into Spanish Louisiana and the US-Mexican War. Havard terms the discourse emerging from these reflections “Hispanicism.” This discourse was used to portray the dominant viewpoint of classical liberalism that propounded an American exceptionalism premised on the idea that Hispanophone peoples were comparatively lacking the capacity for self-determination, hence rationalizing imperialism. On the conservative side were warnings against progress through conquest.
Havard delves into selected works of early national and antebellum literature on Spain and Spanish America to illuminate US national identity. Poetry and novels by Joel Barlow, James Fenimore Cooper, and Herman Melville are mined to further his arguments regarding identity, liberalism, and conservatism. Understudied authors Mary Peabody Mann and José Antonio Saco are held up to contrast American and Cuban views on Hispanicism and Cuban annexation as well as to develop the focus on nationality and ideology via differences in views on liberalism.
More than just a work of literary criticism, there is a substantial amount of cultural and political history discussed. Havard’s use of archival sources such as political articles and personal correspondence elucidates not just literary genres and movements such as early national epic poetry, abolitionist fiction, and the American Renaissance, but also US culture writ large.
**
Americas
History
Mexico
Fiction & Literature
Nonfiction
American
Literary Theory & Criticism
Contents 6
Acknowledgments 8
Introduction 12
Part I. The Black Legend, Hispanicism, and the Emergence of National Identity in the Early United States 46
1. Joel Barlow’s The Vision of Columbus and The Columbiad: US National Identity and Spain 48
2. James Fenimore Cooper’s Mercedes of Castile and Jack Tier: Realism and Hispanicism 75
3. Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno” as Critique of Hispanicist Exceptionalism: Cosmopolitanism and Ironizing Identity 105
Part II. Hispanicism and the Case of Cuba 128
4. Mary Peabody Mann’s Juanita: Cuba and US National Identity 130
5. José Antonio Saco’s Antiannexationist Essays: Cuba, Hispanicism, and National Identity 158
Epilogue: The Hispanicist Forebears of 1898 176
Notes 198
Works Cited 204
Index 218

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Havard, John C.

Fire Ant Books

United States, United States of America

3rd ed., 2018

Apr 10, 2018

producers:
Adobe PDF Library 15.0

Memory of the World Librarian: Calamitous Annunciation

Source title: Hispanicism and Early US Literature: Spain, Mexico, Cuba, and the Origins of US National Identity

En la sobrecubierta: "In Hispanicism and Early US Literature, author John C. Havard posits that representations of Spain, Spanish America, Spanishness, and Spanish Americanness are integral elements in the evolution of early national and antebellum US literature. He argues that Spanish-speaking countries have long held a broad fascination for Americans and that stock narratives regarding these peoples were central to the period’s US literature. Beginning with the work of eighteenth-century literary nationalists such as Joel Barlow, US literature has been drawn to reflect on Spain and Spanish America. Such reflection was often inspired by geopolitical conflicts such as US expansion into Spanish Louisiana and the US-Mexican War. Havard terms the discourse emerging from these reflections “Hispanicism.” This discourse was used to portray the dominant viewpoint of classical liberalism that propounded an American exceptionalism premised on the idea that Hispanophone peoples were comparatively lacking the capacity for self-determination, hence rationalizing imperialism. On the conservative side were warnings against progress through conquest. Havard delves into selected works of early national and antebellum literature on Spain and Spanish America to illuminate US national identity. Poetry and novels by Joel Barlow, James Fenimore Cooper, and Herman Melville are mined to further his arguments regarding identity, liberalism, and conservatism. Understudied authors Mary Peabody Mann and José Antonio Saco are held up to contrast American and Cuban views on Hispanicism and Cuban annexation as well as to develop the focus on nationality and ideology via differences in views on liberalism. More than just a work of literary criticism, there is a substantial amount of cultural and political history discussed. Havard’s use of archival sources such as political articles and personal correspondence elucidates not just literary genres and movements such as early national epic poetry, abolitionist fiction, and the American Renaissance, but also US culture writ large."

Contends that representations of Spain, Spanish America, Spanishness, and Spanish Americanness are integral elements in the evolution of early national and antebellum US literature. John C. Havard argues that Spanish-speaking countries have long held a broad fascination for Americans and that stock narratives regarding these peoples were central to the period's US literature.

2025-10-27