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The Caribbean House of MirrorsConstructing Regions in Area Studies

The Caribbean House of MirrorsConstructing Regions in Area Studies This article introduces the house of mirrors as an analytical device with the aim of cracking open binary comparative work. It offers close readings of debates regarding US colonialism among Puerto Rican intellectuals and politicians at two distinct historical moments. These are the 1910s, prompted specifically by the 1912 War in Cuba, and the early Cold War, the 1950s and 1960s moment of intentionally modeling Puerto Rico as the “Showcase of the Americas.” In changing the focus to examine the play of images intrinsic to the house of mirrors, this meditation seeks to avoid reproducing the single and contained national gaze that often frames comparative narratives, even when they acknowledge the overlapping geographic, sociocultural, and political circuits shaping historical subjects. Instead, the house of mirrors reveals the operational mechanisms of the national modern gaze historical actors often employed to organize their experiences, project themselves onto others, and advance their political desires. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png positions Duke University Press

The Caribbean House of MirrorsConstructing Regions in Area Studies

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Copyright
Copyright 2021 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1067-9847
eISSN
1527-8271
DOI
10.1215/10679847-8722797
Publisher site
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Abstract

This article introduces the house of mirrors as an analytical device with the aim of cracking open binary comparative work. It offers close readings of debates regarding US colonialism among Puerto Rican intellectuals and politicians at two distinct historical moments. These are the 1910s, prompted specifically by the 1912 War in Cuba, and the early Cold War, the 1950s and 1960s moment of intentionally modeling Puerto Rico as the “Showcase of the Americas.” In changing the focus to examine the play of images intrinsic to the house of mirrors, this meditation seeks to avoid reproducing the single and contained national gaze that often frames comparative narratives, even when they acknowledge the overlapping geographic, sociocultural, and political circuits shaping historical subjects. Instead, the house of mirrors reveals the operational mechanisms of the national modern gaze historical actors often employed to organize their experiences, project themselves onto others, and advance their political desires.

Journal

positions – Duke University Press

Published: Feb 1, 2021

References

  • Cuba Independiente: I” (“Independent Cuba: I”)
    Abril, Mariano
  • ¡Ahí Teneis a Cuba!” (“There You Have Cuba!”)
  • Grassroots Globalization and the Research Imagination
    Appadurai, Arjun
  • Asegura el señor Rosell que es muy remota toda probabilidad de intervención á la cual quieren precipitar al país los alzados en armas” (“Mr. Rosell Makes Assurances that the Likelihood of Intervention by the Armed Forces in the Country Is Very Remote”)
  • Chaos Reigns
  • The Comparative Method
    Collier, David Finifter, Ada W.
  • Myths of Racial Democracy: Cuba, 1900–1912
    de la Fuente, Alejandro
  • One World in Relation: Édouard Glissant in Conversation with Manthia Diawara
    Glissant, Edouard; Diawara, Manthia
  • Al pueblo de Cuba” (“To the People of Cuba”)
    Gómez, José M.
  • Intervention May Come
  • La población de Cuba” (“The Population of Cuba”)
  • La situación en Cuba el día 17 de mayo de 1912” (“The Situation in Cuba on May 17, 1912”)
  • Puerto Rico: Up from Poverty
    Moscoso, Teodoro
  • Desde Madrid” (“From Madrid”)
    Muñoz Rivera, Luis
  • Para los separatistas de Puerto Rico: Cómo opina el General Nuñez sobre la situación de Cuba” (“For the Separatists of Puerto Rico: What General Nuñez Thinks about the Situation in Cuba”)
  • Introduction: Decontinentalizing the Study of American Culture
    Roberts, Brian Russell; Stephens, Michelle Ann Roberts, Brian Russell; Stephens, Michelle Ann
  • CubaRícan: Efectos de la capilaridad colonial” (“CubaRícan: Effects of Colonial Capillarity”)
    Salgado, César A.
  • Imagining the Archipelago
    Stratford, Elaine Roberts, Brian Russell; Stephens, Michelle Ann
  • Sucesos de Cuba” (“Cuba Events”)
  • Heuristic Geographies: Territories and Areas, Islands and Archipelagoes
    Thompson, Lanny Roberts, Brian Russell; Stephens, Michelle Ann
  • US Has Sufficient Proof to Intervene
  • ¿Y habra todavia negros integristas?” (“And There Will Still Be Fundamentalist Blacks?”)
  • Cuba Independiente: I” (“Independent Cuba: I”)
    Abril, Mariano
  • ¡Ahí Teneis a Cuba!” (“There You Have Cuba!”)
  • Grassroots Globalization and the Research Imagination
    Appadurai, Arjun
  • Asegura el señor Rosell que es muy remota toda probabilidad de intervención á la cual quieren precipitar al país los alzados en armas” (“Mr. Rosell Makes Assurances that the Likelihood of Intervention by the Armed Forces in the Country Is Very Remote”)
  • Chaos Reigns
  • The Comparative Method
    Collier, David Finifter, Ada W.
  • Myths of Racial Democracy: Cuba, 1900–1912
    de la Fuente, Alejandro
  • One World in Relation: Édouard Glissant in Conversation with Manthia Diawara
    Glissant, Edouard; Diawara, Manthia
  • Al pueblo de Cuba” (“To the People of Cuba”)
    Gómez, José M.
  • Intervention May Come
  • La población de Cuba” (“The Population of Cuba”)
  • La situación en Cuba el día 17 de mayo de 1912” (“The Situation in Cuba on May 17, 1912”)
  • Puerto Rico: Up from Poverty
    Moscoso, Teodoro
  • Desde Madrid” (“From Madrid”)
    Muñoz Rivera, Luis
  • Para los separatistas de Puerto Rico: Cómo opina el General Nuñez sobre la situación de Cuba” (“For the Separatists of Puerto Rico: What General Nuñez Thinks about the Situation in Cuba”)
  • Introduction: Decontinentalizing the Study of American Culture
    Roberts, Brian Russell; Stephens, Michelle Ann Roberts, Brian Russell; Stephens, Michelle Ann
  • CubaRícan: Efectos de la capilaridad colonial” (“CubaRícan: Effects of Colonial Capillarity”)
    Salgado, César A.
  • Imagining the Archipelago
    Stratford, Elaine Roberts, Brian Russell; Stephens, Michelle Ann
  • Sucesos de Cuba” (“Cuba Events”)
  • Heuristic Geographies: Territories and Areas, Islands and Archipelagoes
    Thompson, Lanny Roberts, Brian Russell; Stephens, Michelle Ann
  • US Has Sufficient Proof to Intervene
  • ¿Y habra todavia negros integristas?” (“And There Will Still Be Fundamentalist Blacks?”)