Simón Bolívar and Manuela Sáenz: historical genres/literary genres in Teresa de la Parra essay

Abstract

This article aims to explore the strategies of historical configuration of characters Manuela Sáenz and Simón Bolívar in the essay “Influence of women in the formation of the American soul” by Venezuelan writer Teresa de la Parra (1889-1936). For such purpose I will highlight (i) some methodological assumptions implicit in the essay that allow the articulation of dialectics between the anonymous and the nominated, between the collective and the individual, in order to build women as subjects in a historical evolution, and (ii) the references to the historical-cultural scope of the mentalities through the worldview and literary genres as providers of meanings and understanding mechanisms of an era and its characters. The explanation of the relationship between literature and history from the perspective of literary genres and the updating of the topics of Romanticism allow us to construct the figure of Bolívar from the women who formed him, guided and encouraged him, to end with the incarnation of the utopia of independence in a woman: Manuela Sáenz.