Construction Of Subaltern Otherness In The Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna’s Voyages Testimonies. Notes On A “Reading Against The Grain” In This Category Of Sources

Abstract

The article offers an approach to the discursive strategies
of subordinate otherness construction in Benjamin Vicuña
Mackenna´s voyage literature. From deconstructionists
approach of Subaltern Studies, it undertakes a systematic
scrutiny of five works, from the abundant corpus of literature
of nineteenth-century author. The examination reveals a series
of explanatory strategies that shaped heterogeneous profiles
of some others in the story, marking a radical mismatch with
those historical social sectors that travel journals claimed to
represent. Finally, it addresses the heuristic problem of this
type of sources for historiographical reconstruction of the
specificity and diversity of subjects at the grassroots. Using
a “reading against the grain”, the description of the popular
universe outlined by Vicuña Mackenna would track the profile
of unique and diverse subaltern rationalities.

Keywords: Voyage literature- Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna-
Subaltern Studies- “Reading against the grain”- Subaltern
Rationalities.