Constructing the Nation: Julia Alvarez’ In the Name of Salomé.
Presentation
Overview
Overview
Description
Julia Alvarez’ novel In the Name of Salomé (2000) re-evaluates the 19th century notion of Dominican nationalism from a late 20th century perspective and from outside the nation’s political boundaries. Two major themes that arise from this examination are that of construction of national identity and writing of history. The 19th notion of nationalism in Latin America is based on contemporary North American and European traditions especially in the French Revolutions’ motto of “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.” Yet like many Latin American countries fighting for their independence from Spain, The Dominican Republic did not live up to the high standards of the slogan, due to their society’s strong patriarchal and racial hierarchies. Salomé’s narrative questions the hierarchical structures applied to the construction of nation by presenting it through the perspective of its female protagonists Salomé, the 19th Dominican poet, also known as the Muse of the Nation; and her daughter Camila.
Alvarez problematizes the writing of history by choosing to fictionalize the historical protagonists, and by presenting history through their perspective. It thus shifts traditional historiography from its male dominion or simple enumeration of public acts of those involved in the process of nation building. It also highlights women’s role, bound by their social mores, in the same process yet never fully recognized. Alvarez’ own positioning as a Dominican American author and being the agent of the narrative creates a question of authenticity and authority to speak for the Dominican nation. The author’s claim of the Dominican nation for Dominicans living outside its national boundaries is a post-colonial 20th century phenomenon arising from mass immigrations. Benedict Anderson’s theory of nationalism proposes the idea of an “imagined community,” where members of the community are tied by their common history and national spirit in spite of never having been in contact with each other. In case of Alvarez this theoretical notion stretches beyond the political borders of a nation adapting to the new idea of community in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Re-writing a nation’s history is a re-evaluation of national identity. It is an examination of the markers of a nation, be it based on race, gender, religion or class; and in case of Alvarez, also based on geography. It questions the exclusionist attitudes in the process of a nation’s construction and aspires to include those left out at the margins.
