CIVILIZACIÓN Y BARBARIE: EL INDIO EN LA LITERATURA CRIOLLA EN COLOMBIA Y VENEZUELA DESPUÉS DE LA INDEPENDENCIA

Abstract

This article compares how nineteenth-century Romantic literature in Colombia and Venezuela treated the figure of the Indian. Its principal aim is to contrast the image of the Indian in this literature to that created during the wars of Independence. The article argues that Romantic literature reintroduced the idea of the difference between civilized and wild Indians that had been intentionally de-emphasized during the wars. Moreover, the article suggests that the idea of the "civilized" Indian, more common in Colombia than Venezuela, implied different approaches to notions of progress, Positivism and evolution. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]