| This dissertation examines the debate over Argentine national identity between 1900 and 1930. These years witnessed a growing rejection of cosmopolitanism by many of the nation's writers and intellectuals, and a widespread attempt by these individuals to define a uniquely Argentine character. The study has two objectives. First, it examines the causes underlying the new dissatisfaction with cosmopolitanism, and explores why national identity became such an important issue at this particular moment in Argentine history. The second objective is to outline the different visions of the nation which emerged during this period, and to analyze their political implications.;The dissertation is organized around several key themes. These include: the Argentine Generation of 1910 and its call for cultural nationalism, the debate over European immigration, changing attitudes toward the gaucho, and the impact of this new concern over national identity on political rhetoric. The research is based primarily upon novels, scholarly and popular articles, literary criticism, political speeches, campaign literature, correspondence, and encuestas or questionnaires from the period.;My conclusions are as follows. First, the early twentieth-century rejection of cosmopolitanism can be traced to a growing concern over the negative effects of rapid modernization. These included, but were not limited to, the problems associated with massive immigration. Changes in the style and tempo of quotidian life, new patterns of consumption, technological change, as well as growing social unrest, all contributed to the widespread fear that Argentina's identity and culture were being swept away. Second, the new concern over Argentine identity was not inherently conservative. In contrast to previous studies, which claim that the early twentieth-century debate over Argentine identity was a direct precursor to the conservative nationalism of the 1930s and 1940s, my dissertation concludes that notions of Argentine identity in the first decades of the century were not monolithic. Instead, during this period, diverse visions of lo argentino with radically different political implications clashed repeatedly. |
