"Como antiguas estatuas de bronce" Sobre la disolución del clasicismo en la Relación histórica de un viaje a las regiones equinocciales del Nuevo Continente, de Alejandro de Humboldt*

• Main Author: Oliver Lubrich
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Universität Potsdam 2004-10-01
• Series: HiN - Alexander von Humboldt im Netz. Internationale Zeitschrift für Humboldt-Studien
• Subjects: Alexander von Humboldt; Oliver Lubrich; Antiquity; Classizim; Relation historique
• Online Access: http://www.uni-potsdam.de/u/romanistik/humboldt/hin/hin9/lubrich.htm

Article in Spanish, Abstracts in English, German and Spanish. "Like antique bronze statues" – Dissolving classicism in Alexander von Humboldt's Relation historique du Voyage aux Régions équinoxiales du Nouveau ContinentThe "antiquization" of America, using classicist motifs as imperial models of appropriation, is a central rhetorical strategy in Alexander von Humboldt's travelogue. Over the course of the colonial experience this discourse is infused with tension: metaphoric and metonymic types of references collide; positive and negative connotations are superimposed; incompatible modes of temporalization are contrasted; colonial as well as dissident identifications are laid out. The concept of "antiquity" is de-authorized, deconstructed. Readers witness the dissolution of European classicism as a politico-aesthetic 'dispositif' due to contact with cultural difference.