Abstract

RISSO, Julio L.. Cuando crear paisaje fue inventar un "desierto": Las planicies argentinas a través de los relatos y pinturas de viajeros ingleses (1816-1926). Rev. Pilquen. secc. cienc. soc. [online]. 2016, vol.19, n.4, pp.79-95. ISSN 1851-3123.

In this article we rethink the imaginary antecedents of the aesthetic compositions that in Argentina, with the Generación de 1837, disseminated the idea of a "desert" (the plains) as a national landscape. In this sense, given that we consider the landscape as a relevant concept to comprehend the hegemonic ways of imagining a country and (re)constructing sociocultural identifications, we revisit some narrative and visual representations produced by english travelers who have passed through the (current) Argentinean territory between 1816 and 1826. Thus, by a critical reflection about the perspectives, the ways of landscape representations and the process of sociocultural identifications that those works imply, we aim to recognize not only the mechanisms but also the political and sociocultural effects whereby -before the Argentinean National State consolidation- the unmistaken idea of a "desert", began to be naturalized as a characteristic landscape of a still undefined country.

Keywords : Landscape; English travellers; Aesthetic; Desert.

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