Gauchos and Foreigners: Glossing Culture and Identity in the Argentine Countryside [Paperback]

InGauchos and Foreigners: Glossing Culture and Identity in the Argentine CountrysideAriana Huberman discusses the relationship between the gaucho figure and the foreigner in Argentine rural literature. The narratives of William Henry Hudson, Benito Lynch and Alberto Gerchunoff present English scientists and travelers, as well as Jewish and Italian immigrants, in direct contact with the gaucho in the Argentine and Uruguayan countryside. The book shows how the intent to define and translate terms from the national glossary the gaucho, his lifestyle and habitat and from foreign cultures, ultimately questions these terms' capacity to represent a specific culture. It traces a series of writing practices that challenge the concepts of native and foreign as stable categories of representation by conveying identity and culture across multiple linguistic, social and cultural registers. The reading of these unique practices of translation hopes to offer a fresh approach to the multicultural scope of Argentine literature.Ariana Hubermanis visiting associate professor of Spanish at Haverford College

Ariana Huberman'sGauchos and Foreignersoffers a rich, provocative reflection on national myths and constructions of national identity in Argentina. The gaucho, a powerful ideological figure in Argentine literature, endowed with near-mystical status, is subjected in this book to new readings through the novels of three unusual authors - William Henry Hudson, Benito Lynch, and Alberto Gerchunoff - who, purposely blurring the limits between the national and the foreign, deconstruct the national icon. This is a most stimulating, critically productive contribution to ongoing debates on national belonging, regional specificity, and cross-cultural exchange. Sylvia Molloy,, Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities, New York University

In an original reading of works by W.H. Hudson, Benito Lynch and Alberto Gerchunoff, Ariana Huberman cleverly demonl