Category: What Is A Scholar?

On Latin America, (cosmopolitan) vanguard of the nineteenth century

02/12/2014

It really was. And I have just ordered Black Cosmopolitanism: Racial Consciousness and Transnational Identity in the Nineteenth-Century Americas and it discusses the Americas — both of them — and Haiti; Frederick Douglass apparently said he was more Haitian than North American, and Afro-Latin Americans were dis-identifying from Blackness so as to join the nation … More On Latin America, (cosmopolitan) vanguard of the nineteenth century

Encore une méditation

27/11/2014

Destruction came from the combination of: recriminations for being research oriented, multiple “boundary” violations, the internalization of these recriminations, the rage at the boundary violations which I turned against myself, and ultimately, the conversion of what had always been positive spaces into scenes of torture. That was the combination of elements. Condensing: boundary violations, authorities … More Encore une méditation

Ralph Waldo Emerson

23/11/2014

This is someone I should study. I must examine his categorical rejection of “imitation,” particularly of European models — an articulation of 1840s US literary nationalism. His program for self-reliance is apparently obedience to higher law. “Plinlimmon’s snake oil,” someone said in reference to Emerson. Tell me about that. Plinlimmon is a character in Melville’s … More Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sur Cuba (et la nuit)

01/10/2014

“The dualism that emerged in Cuban ideology–between liberal constructs of patria and radical formulations of nationality–is fully investigated as a source of both national tension and competing notions of liberty, equality, and justice.” This is interesting. Meanwhile, in addition to everything else, I must remember to read online homework. I am very busy and I … More Sur Cuba (et la nuit)