Eurocentrism and popular denigration in "Amalia" by José Mármol. A decolonial reading

Abstract

José Mármol (1817-1871) was the first novelist from the River Plate. Its production coordinates are two; namely: firstly, it is embedded in the interpretation of the romantic movement in its autochthonous version and, secondly, the totality of his work, both in prose and verse, is organized from the intersection between literature and politics. On the other hand, it is true that its preponderance in the Argentine literary canon is less than other contemporary authors such as Echeverría or Sarmiento; this from the critical operations carried out by Borges first and by Piglia later. However, its literary and ideological value are not minor since, together with the previous ones, it contributes to articulate and strengthen the Sarmientian dichotomy of "Civilization or Barbarism" omnipresent in the Sarmientino "Facundo" (1845) and a topic of prolonged breath in literature. and Argentine thought for two centuries. However, the Sarmientina dilemma does not show polysemy and despite the fact that Sarmiento consecrates it literarily, its multiple interetextual links reveal it as deeply linked to the conceptual system operating in the middle of the 19th century in the intellectual elites of the River Plate region. The previous one, not without dogmatism, implies the rejection of the autochthonous American by assuming it a telluric avatar of barbarism and the assimilation of European forms of sociability and institutionality because they are perceived as civilized and therefore prone to progress and economic and technical advancement.